“Concerning His Son Jesus Christ” Romans 1:3

“There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit” Romans 8:1.

So opens the eighth chapter of Romans – one of the most glorious and assuring passages of scripture for the believer. Here faith’s victory over all its foes is assured because of Him in whom God’s people dwell, He in whom they are “more than conquerors” – the Lord Jesus Christ.

Notice that this deliverance from condemnation is to those who are in Christ Jesus – and none other. Having first shown in chapter three that those whom God saves are those who believe (see 3:22), Paul now begins to show just who believe – they are those who are in Christ – those who are called the sons of God.

But how is one in Christ? And when does that person come to faith in Christ? And how does faith conquer its enemies?

To answer such questions we must first recognise that the salvation of a sinner begins long before he looks to Christ by faith, long before he hears of God’s work in Christ in the Gospel, long before he is convicted of sin or brought to hear the alarm of God sounding in his heart warning him to flee the wrath to come. And it owes nothing to his decision to ‘accept Jesus’ or to make himself acceptable before God by something he does – for what can men who are “dead in trespasses and sins” do to make themselves acceptable to God? And what decision or act of the will can a corpse make to bring himself out of the grave? Absolutely none!

Then if a sinner be saved – and sinners are saved – it will begin not with their will, but with God’s, and not in their time, but in God’s. And God’s work of salvation in saving sinners begins long before they come to faith, long before they are even born, and long before even the Son of God came into the world to lay down His life for others.

As we read through Romans it becomes clear that before a dead sinner is ever given faith to believe in Christ and to know Him as his Saviour, that there is a prior work of God which can be traced back to long before the word of the Gospel is made known unto a man, long before that man is born, long before the world was even created. Long before time even came into existence!

For that work begins in eternity when God purposed to save a people, and purposed to save them in His Son. That’s where salvation lies – in the eternal purpose of God, in the eternal covenant of God between Father and Son, by which God chose a people in Christ “before the foundation of the world” (Ephesians 1:4), a people whom He predestinated “unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will, to the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved” (Ephesians 1:5-6). It is this people whom Christ, in time, redeemed through His blood, to bring forgiveness of sins, to whom God then makes known “the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure which he hath purposed in himself”.

It is this eternal purpose, this divine election which Paul opens up in the ninth chapter of Romans. It is this which led to the work of Christ in laying down His life for the sheep (John 10:15) in order that their sin might be judged in righteousness that God might be “just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus”, as demonstrated in the earlier chapters of Romans. And it is this which leads to the experimental work of God in bringing a sinner to Christ by which they are convicted of sin, quickened unto life, converted, brought to repentance and finally lay hold upon Christ with God-given faith.

So we see an order here, in the work of God in saving sinners, beginning with God’s eternal decree, magnified in the work of God in offering up His Son as a substitutionary sacrifice for sinners, and culminating in the experimental work of God the Spirit in the lifetime of a believer as he is brought from darkness unto light, from death into everlasting life.

In Romans Paul presents these truths by somewhat reversing their order so as to trace the light, as it were, back to its source. Beginning with faith and faith’s object in the earlier chapters he traces back to faith’s origin – the divine election and decree of God in chapter 9. Having presented the objective work of God in the Gospel from chapters 3 to 5, Paul demonstrates the effects in chapters 6 to 8. Here, in the eighth chapter we see the effects of those essential elements of the work of God in all those ultimately brought to faith in Christ – conversion and repentance which spring forth from son-ship.

The entire context of Romans 8 is son-ship – of being in Christ, and born of God. All the assurance, all the comfort, all the blessings, all the victory, is assured to those, and only those, who are in Christ – the sons of God. Once again, as we see throughout Romans the contrast is set before us between those in Christ – both Jew and Gentile, made of twain into one new man (Ephesians 2:15) – and those outside, those of the Last Adam, and those of the first, those loved like Jacob, and those hated like Esau, those in the Spirit, and those in the flesh. Two Men, Two Seeds, Two Pathways…. One unto death… but one unto eternal life.

Yes… eternal life. Eternal life to all in Christ, all who are delivered from death by Him, all delivered from sin and the law, all delivered from all condemnation, all those upon whom God’s love is set, all those who are made “more the conquerors” in Him – and all who can never be separated from God’s love!

But what marks these out? What distinguishes them? Here in chapter 8 Pauls tells us that….

They have a new life

They have turned from darkness unto light

They have a new mind (having previously been given over to a reprobate mind – Romans 1:28)

And they walk by faith, in the Spirit, being heavenly minded.

Given these things it may be asked – from whence does it all spring? Answer – From heaven! By revelation! They all spring from the same source, and that source is the light of God… and that light is conveyed by the Gospel!

So let us briefly consider these things, these essential things, which take place in the salvation of every one of God’s people and by which they are marked out as God’s children.

Sons of God

Firstly, we will never come to see the truth of God’s work in saving sinners, we will never experience the consequence of Christ’s work upon the cross in dying for the ungodly, those without strength (Romans 5:6), until the Spirit of God quickens us unto life.

We must be born again.

It is this new birth and this new life in which Paul rejoices around the start of Romans 8 where he “thanks God through Jesus Christ our Lord” (Romans 7:25) for delivering him from the body of death, from the corruption of indwelling sin in his flesh (7:18), from “the law of sin and death” (8:2), by the “law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus”.

That was that in which Paul found deliverance – the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus. God, having condemned Paul’s sin in the flesh of His own Son (8:3), Christ having died for sin, and having risen again from the grave with newness of life, Paul too rose again in Him, and, as a result, was born again of the Spirit, quickened unto eternal life, and given “the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus”. But until then, until the Spirit applied the effects of Christ’s work to Paul in his own experience, he was just as others – he was dead in sin.

By nature we are dead. Dead spiritually. Dead “in trespasses and sins” (Ephesians 2:1). Dead to all true awareness of God – of His existence, of His power, of His majesty, of His grace, of His love, of His long-suffering. We’re dead.

Fallen in Adam, shapen in iniquity, conceived in sin (Psalm 51:5), we have from the womb gone astray, speaking lies. We are, by nature, born blind to the truth. We don’t see it, we can’t hear it, we don’t understand it, we don’t love it and we won’t have it. We love sin, we love ourselves, we love this present evil age. To the things of God and the things of eternity we are entirely oblivious and wilfully unaware. We are dead.

But does religion make things better? Did Paul’s religion make him better? Had he not been brought up a Jew, a Pharisee, “of the tribe of Benjamin, an Hebrew of the Hebrews” (Philippians 3:5)? Was he not zealous, did he not know the scriptures, was he not careful to keep the letter of God’s law? Did this religion lead him into truth – did it lead him to God?

It did not! Though a Jew, though a Hebrew, though a Pharisee, though of the tribe of Benjamin, Paul, Saul as he was then, was utterly blind to the truth concerning Jesus Christ. All his learning in the scriptures, all his zeal in his religion, all his natural intellect and efforts, left him as blind as ever, as dead as ever. In his zeal he opposed the truth, he opposed God’s Son… In his zeal he persecuted the church…

That’s where religion in the letter, in the flesh, gets you. Nowhere. Full of knowledge, full of pride, full of zeal… but still full of death and corruption. Blind to the truth, deaf to the word of life, and dead in trespasses and sins. As Paul later wrote, “what things were gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ” (Philippians 3:7). For when God revealed the truth to Paul he was brought to write, “I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ, And be found in him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith: That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death; If by any means I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead.”

Religion, or no religion, by nature we are dead. Completely dead. And can the dead hear? Can they see? Can they believe? Can they stand up and ‘follow Jesus’?

Not at all. Not unless, and not until, they should first rise from the dead. Not until they should be given life again. Not until there should be a resurrection of life from the dead. Not until God in His mercy, should quicken them unto eternal life by the mighty in-working power of His Holy Spirit, by whom He breathes into them heavenly life, eternal life, through the word of His power. Not until, by such a work, they be baptised with the Spirit of God, by which He makes His abode in man and comes to dwell in him, “But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you… And if Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin; but the Spirit is life because of righteousness” (Romans 8:9,10). No, not until God quickens their “mortal bodies by his Spirit” (Romans 8:11). And no, not until that hour comes when “the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God: and they that hear shall live” John 6:25.

But should that hour come, should the Son of God be pleased to speak to us by His Spirit, through the Gospel, then we will be born again, and having life – Christ’s life in us – we will see and believe on the Son of God who saved us. For “he that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life” John 6:24.

Have you heard the word of the Son of God? Have you who were once in the grave, bound by sin, death and corruption, heard Christ’s voice in the Gospel (John 6:28), being “born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever”? (1 Peter 1:23)

For unless you have heard, and until you are born again, you cannot “see the kingdom of God” (John 3:3).

And for that reason, “Ye must be born again” (John 3:7).

Converted

The immediate consequence of this new birth is conversion. Conversion means to be turned – turned from one way to another way, turned from walking one direction, to walking in another direction altogether.

That is the effect of the Gospel upon those whom God quickens unto life, those whose eyes are opened – “to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins, and inheritance among them which are sanctified by faith that is in me” (Acts 26:18).

Those born of God, the sons of God, are turned from darkness unto the light. They are turned from that pathway they once walked in the flesh, to a new pathway in which they follow after the Son of God, as led by the Spirit (Romans 8:4). The change is dramatic – it is a 180-degree turn. Once they went this way…. But now they are led this way. Once they loved darkness, but now they love the light of truth. Once they hated God, but now they are brought to love Him whose love overwhelms them. Once they walked after every desire and every lust of their sinful flesh, but now they hate the deeds of the flesh and that corruption which lies therein, and they long for the things of God. Once they were oblivious to their inability in the flesh to keep the demands of God’s holy law, but now, the commandment having come by the application of the Spirit they find that it condemns them utterly, and they find themselves crying out for deliverance! (Romans 7:9-11, 24). And having cried out, “O wretched man that I am! Who shall deliver me from the body of this death?” they find their answer in Christ and His Gospel, who has delivered them from the law of sin and death, causing them to “walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit” (Romans 8:4).

And now… as led by the Spirit of God, as separated – sanctified – unto God, they “by patient continuance in well doing seek for glory and honour and immortality” Romans 2:7.

“For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God” Romans 8:14.

The granting of repentance

From verse 5 of Romans 8 through to verse 17 Paul deals with the realities of the new life which believers have in Christ as being born of God. Through the preaching of the Gospel, being born again by the Spirit of God through the truth, soundly converted, being turned from darkness unto light, God’s people are given an entirely new mentality. Once they were carnally minded, but now they are spiritually minded. Once they minded the things of the flesh which brought death, but now they mind the things of the Spirit which are “life and peace” (Romans 8:6).

Such a dramatic change, such a change of the mentality, of our whole way of thinking, is known as repentance, and without repentance, without such a change, we will never think rightly of God, and never know God as our Saviour. But just as surely as all who are born of God will be converted, so too they will be brought to repentance, turning from the things of the flesh to mind the things of the Spirit.

To this end Paul preached the Gospel – “Testifying both to the Jews, and also to the Greeks, repentance toward God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ” (Acts 20:21). And to this end, to grant such repentance, such a change in the understanding, Christ Himself opened up the scriptures to His disciples in Luke 24:44-48, “And he said unto them, These are the words which I spake unto you, while I was yet with you, that all things must be fulfilled, which were written in the law of Moses, and in the prophets, and in the psalms, concerning me. Then opened he their understanding, that they might understand the scriptures, And said unto them, Thus it is written, and thus it behooved Christ to suffer, and to rise from the dead the third day: And that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. And ye are witnesses of these things.”

Many think of repentance in terms of its effect upon the heart, in terms of that contrite spirit which is wrought within, the mourning over our sins and the turning away from them. But whilst all that might be an effect, the reality is that repentance is essentially to do with the mentality. The Greek is metanoia and its meaning regards the mind and a complete change of that mind and its thinking. Except our whole mentality be changed, our whole understanding and comprehension of the things of God, then we will remain opposed to the truth, “because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God” (Romans 8:8). Likewise, because fallen men and women “did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient; being filled with all unrighteousness…” (Romans 1:28-29).

But thank God that those whom he quickens unto life are no longer in the flesh, but in the Spirit (8:9), having a new mentality, having repented of their dead works before God and, reckoning their flesh to be dead, come to rest in the righteousness of God in Christ for justification, as indwelt by the Spirit of God who is “life because of righteousness” (8:10).

Oh what a transformation does such repentance bring! What a passing from death unto life, from darkness unto light, from the flesh to the Spirit – and to what end? That we might be called the “sons of God” who have “not received the spirit of bondage again to fear” but “the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father”! Yes, whereby we cry “Abba, Father”! What communion, what nearness to God the Father the sons of God are brought into! How astounding this is, what a reconciliation there is here between those who were once so far apart, and yet are now brought to be so near.

And how shall we know that we are sons of the Father?By this means – “The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God: and if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together” (Romans 8:17).

The faith which conquers

The conclusion of Romans 8 from verse 18 through to verse 39 represents one of the most encouraging and glorious passages of scripture for the believer in Jesus Christ. Having set before us the work of God in Christ in saving His people, the consequences of that work in bringing that people to newness of life in Christ Jesus by the work of the Holy Spirit, in turning them from darkness unto light, from walking after the flesh to being led by the Spirit, in granting to them repentance to bring them to a new way of thinking, being turned from the carnal mind to be spiritually minded, Paul now brings before our gaze the fruit of that work in the gift of saving faith by which all God’s people see and believe the Gospel, by which they are united to and trust in Jesus Christ their Saviour, and by which they walk in hope before God, as assured of victory over all their foes. It is faith and the certain hope which is presented to that faith which lies behind the rest of chapter 8.

This passage presents to us the assurance which faiths finds in the work of God for His people, not because of anything they do or can do, but entirely because of the work of God on their behalf. Here faith finds its comfort, finds its hope, and finds its victory, in the sure and certain work of God in the predestination, calling, justifying and glorifying (Romans 8:30) of all those whom God chose in Christ before the foundation of the world.

Here faith finds that whatever its tribulations may be in this earthly realm, whatever the “sufferings of this present time” (8:18) might entail, whatever the groaning and travailing in pain (8:22) as we wait for the “adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body”, nevertheless we are “saved by hope”, patiently waiting for that which we can’t now see with the natural eye (8:25) but which we look to by the eye of faith, yearning for the promise of the inheritance to come as we pray by the Spirit, who by Christ intercedes for us, the saints, “according to the will of God” (8:27).

It is by such faith that “we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose” (Romans 8:28).

And on what ground does that faith trust in such knowledge? On the ground that those “whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover whom he did predestinate, them he also called: and whom he called, them he also justified: and whom he justified, them he also glorified” (Romans 8:29-30).

What a ground for hope to rest in! What a sure and certain salvation God has wrought for all His people. How sure the end is, given the beginning – “whom he did foreknow… them he also glorified”. Who did this? God did! It is all of God, from start to finish. Not one step depends on man, on his frail strength, his fickle will, nor his depraved desire, nor even his faith, for it is not faith which saves man, but the One in whom faith rests. All is of God, all is by grace, all is sure and certain, for when Christ cried out “It is finished!” it was finished! Everything necessary to justify His people was done. Salvation is of the Lord! And what a salvation!

But with what effect? What is the confident cry of faith in which it finds its hope?

What shall we say to these things?

“If God be for us, who can be against us?

He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?

Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God’s elect? It is God that justifieth.

Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us.

Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written, For thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.

Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us.

For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Romans 8:31-39

In Romans 11:26, in concluding his consideration of just who the true Israel of God is – that people chosen by God from amongst both Jews and Gentiles, that people called out from every tribe and kindred, from the four corners of the earth, all who are brought to faith in Christ, the election of grace (11:6) – Paul makes this glorious statement “And so all Israel shall be saved”. Yes all Israel shall be saved. All who God chose in Christ from before the foundation of the world. Shall all really be saved? Most assuredly, for “as it is written, There shall come out of Sion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob: For this is my covenant unto them, when I shall take away their sins.”

God’s people upon the earth, both Jews and Gentiles, are pictured vividly in Romans 11 by the illustration of the Olive Tree. This tree has both root and branches, some branches being broken off, and some grafted in, many of the Jews being broken off for their unbelief, and the believing Gentiles being grafted in. Yet the illustration extends further than that. All those who are but outwardly religious, perhaps born and raised a Jew or perhaps brought up a ‘Christian’, brought up to ‘attend church or chapel’ will, if they remain in unbelief be ultimately broken off from the tree – whilst those people who are brought to true faith in Christ and His Gospel, whether Jew or Gentile, whether brought up religious or not at all, are those branches whom the Lord grafts in.

But whether branches be broken off or grafted in what remains sure, what never changes, is the root of the tree itself – and that root is Christ. He gives the tree its life, He gives it strength, He sustains it. All the branches on the tree have no life but what they receive from the tree, the root, itself. For Christ is the “firstfruit” (Romans 11:16), He is the One who rose from the dead, the Deliverer in Sion whom having taken away His people’s sins conquered death and rose again in newness of everlasting life. The promises to Abraham concerning his Seed were all fulfilled in Christ for all His seed in Him – all those purchased by His blood at the cross, all that “election of grace”, all who by faith are united to Him as branches to His vine. The illustration of the Olive tree reminds us of that wonderful passage in chapter 15 of John’s Gospel in which Christ declares of Himself:

“I am the true vine, and my Father is the husbandman. Every branch in me that beareth not fruit he taketh away: and every branch that beareth fruit, he purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit. Now ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you.

Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in me. I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing. If a man abide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered; and men gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned.

If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you. Herein is my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit; so shall ye be my disciples. As the Father hath loved me, so have I loved you: continue ye in my love.” John 15:1-9

What a tremendous picture is seen here of the fruitfulness of God’s people as united to Christ, the true vine, in whom they abide as those in whom His words abide, those in whose hearts Christ dwells by faith, those whom He calls His disciples. What union, what love is shown here, and what glory is rendered to the Father by the fruitfulness of that vine, the ekklesia of Christ. Yet, despite this, what a warning chapter 11 of Romans presents to us of the consequences of unbelief, of the dreadful end awaiting those whose profession is false, whose walk is but outward, whose association with the things of God is merely in the flesh, merely through natural inheritance, only in the letter and never in the Spirit. All of these, all who despite the profession of their lips, have hearts which are far from God, all in whom remains unbelief of the truth, of Christ in His Gospel, all of these, whatever they may appear before men, will be broken off – cut off, forever removed from the tree, cast into the fire and burned. What an end…. And what a warning.

Have you faith in Christ? Are you a branch on His vine? Is all well with your soul? Or is your profession but in word only? Have you received a love of the truth, of the truth of God’s Gospel as truly set forth in the scriptures? Do you rest in that salvation wrought by God for those whom He chose in Christ, His Israel? Is your salvation by the grace of God or by your own works, your own merit, your own worth? Has God grafted you into His olive tree or do you just put on a show, an appearance, of being a branch, yet ultimately to be broken off on that great day when God judges both the quick and the dead?

The answers to such questions are vital. Do we have faith or not? Do we abide in Christ, and His words in us, or not? Might we at the last be found amongst that company who will cry out “Lord, Lord”, only to receive that crushing response for all eternity: “I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity”? (Matthew 7:21,23)

When Christ, the Son of God, came into this world, born a Jew, “made of the seed of David according to the flesh”(Romans 1:3) He came to a people whose hearts had turned from God. An apostate nation. A people who drew near unto God with their lips when their hearts were far from Him. “He came unto his own, and his own received him not” John 1:11.

The very ones, the very people, who should have known Christ at His coming, the ones who should have been looking for the coming of Messiah, unto whom had been committed the oracles of God, the scriptures, the Levitical priesthood, the sacrifices, all the types and figures which pointed unto the Deliverer in Sion, failed to see Him at His coming. They failed to see Him for whom He was, for who He is. Their eyes were blinded and their hearts hardened. They followed after the law of righteousness, but never attained to it (Romans 9:31). Lacking faith they stumbled at that stumblingstone laid in Sion (9:33). Despite all the prophecies of the scriptures, all the promises made to their fathers, all being fulfilled before their very eyes, they saw nothing but a man. Though the very Son of God stood before them, though the very Messiah, the Deliverer of Jacob, of whom the scriptures testified, walked amongst them, they saw Him not for whom He was, but merely as a man like themselves, and despite all their religion, all their intellect, all their outward zeal in the things of God, they rejected the very One sent of God as the Saviour, they cast Him out, despised Him, mocked Him, made false accusation against Him, ridiculed Him, hated Him, and, at the last, with wicked hands, crucified Him.

So God cut them off, breaking off their branches from the Olive tree and grafting in Gentile believers to whom He sent His Gospel, to whom He sent the word of life, to whom He revealed His Son as their Saviour.

But lest those Gentile believers, lest we, should boast in this, lest we should be found judging or despising the apostate Jews of old, as though we are any better than they, or judging those in the churches today who fall away or reject the truth, Paul reminds the Gentiles, he reminds us, that if grafted into the tree, if kept in the tree, it is only because of God’s mercy, of His grace. It is God who saves, God who shows grace, God who gives His children the gift of faith to lay hold of Christ. Salvation owes nothing to the works or the will of man. As it is written “And if by grace, then is it no more of works: otherwise grace is no more grace. But if it be of works, then it is no more grace: otherwise work is no more work. What then? Israel hath not obtained that which he seeketh for; but the election hath obtained it, and the rest were blinded.” Romans 11:6-7

Yes, God’s people are saved by grace and kept by grace, and should they turn from this to their own works, should they turn from the truth of the Gospel to another, should they be found rejecting the Son of God as He truly is, then they too, Jew or Gentile, will be branches that are broken off. Profession of faith or not, churchgoer or not, outwardly religious or not, except God grants us true faith in the truth of Christ as revealed in His Gospel, we will not, we cannot remain in that tree, amongst that company who will inherit eternal life.

When Christ came to redeem His people the vast profession of religion amongst the Jews was found to be apostate. It was corrupt. It was rotten. It had an appearance of godliness but denied the power thereof. But for the ones and twos, the “remnant according to the election of grace”, the Simeons and Annas who looked for redemption in Israel, who looked by faith for the coming of Messiah, but for those few disciples whom God called to follow Christ from amongst His earthly people, but for these, the vast profession of Judaism, of the religion of the day, had departed from God. They had words, they had forms, they had outward appearances, but they had no faith in their hearts. They were apostate.

Has not the same thing come to pass amongst the Gentiles today? Look around. Take notice. Has not the vast profession of ‘Christendom’, the great majority of churches, be they Catholic or Protestant, Evangelical or Fundamental, Baptist or Methodist, Presbyterian or Congregational, Conservative or Charismatic, Arminian or Calvinist… whatever the form, whatever the profession, has not the great majority turned from the truth of the Gospel as set forth in the scriptures to another gospel? Have they not turned from the Christ as preached by the apostles, to another Jesus? Do the people not rejoice in their own strength, in their own will, in their own freedom to approach God on their own terms, to worship Him as they will?

Would not Christendom today, the great mass of religious profession, reject Christ if He came “unto his own” as Israel did before them? Would they not, indeed do they not, put Him, the true Christ, to death in their very thoughts and affections? In their rejection of the truth regarding Him, in their rejecting those sent by Christ to preach His Gospel? Do they not prefer their ‘gentle Jesus, meek and mild’ who loves all, who died for all, and who helplessly stands by desiring the salvation of all, yet is impotent to actually save any? Do they not proclaim a gospel and a Jesus who changes with the times, who adapts to the fashions and trends of the day? Is their Jesus truly “the same yesterday, and to day, and forever”?

Is not the professing church of our day as apostate, nay, more apostate, than Israel was at the time of Christ’s coming?

Surely the words of Christ in Matthew 21:13 ring true about our own day and generation: “It is written, My house shall be called the house of prayer; but ye have made it a den of thieves”.

Face the question – is this not the case? Can we not see it all around us?

And, my reader, ask yourself this question: are you among that number? Are you a branch ready to be broken off, ready to be burned in the fire? Might you, like Esau, seek repentance but never find it?

Or have you a better hope? Has God given you true faith, true repentance, as with Jacob? For both faith and repentance are the gifts of God – we can’t simply ‘work them up’. No! We’re dead by nature, dead in trespasses and sins. But I ask – are you by God’s great mercy, by free grace alone, found among that people, that remnant of grace, that poor contrite, lowly company, whose eyes have been opened to see their poverty before God, their pitiful state by nature as wilful sinners, as unbelieving creatures, as ungrateful servants who stand in need of mercy, of salvation. Has God opened your eyes to see Christ in the Gospel, to have the truth of God’s grace revealed to you? Has He lifted you up, as a beggar from off a dunghill and set your feet upon that sure foundation of everlasting salvation by the grace of God, through the Lord Jesus Christ?

For all the election of grace, all those chosen people of God, all His true Israel will be saved, despite their rebellion and unbelief by nature they will be brought to faith, they will be brought to hear the truth of the Gospel, they will be brought to hear the voice of the Son of God say unto them, as unto the dead, “Live!”

For, “The hour is coming, and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God: and they that hear shall live.” John 5:25.

And all such branches, all God’s people saved by grace, will never, ever, be broken off from that True Vine, from Christ, their Saviour. All these branches, Jews and Gentiles, will surely be brought to faith and find their rest in Christ by the sounding of His Gospel, and none other – “And so all Israel shall be saved”.

Amen.

“O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out! For who hath known the mind of the Lord? or who hath been his counsellor? Or who hath first given to him, and it shall be recompensed unto him again?

For of him, and through him, and to him, are all things: to whom be glory for ever. Amen.” Romans 11:33-36

In chapter 15 of Romans Paul first concludes his thoughts from chapter 14 by encouraging the brethren to serve one another in love, to encourage one another, to edify one another. By pointing them to Christ and His example Paul encourages that unity of the brethren in their love for Christ and one another that they might “with one mind and one mouth glorify God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.”

Notice here, how the Father is glorified. Contrary to how man generally views it, when the message of God’s salvation in the Gospel is seen from God’s perspective, it is evident that the Gospel is not so much about what is brought in for man, in terms of the salvation of God’s elect, but of what is brought in for God and to His glory, through the Son’s redemption of His Bride, the church, whom He brings to His Father to worship and glorify Him, as making known the wonders of His grace before all creation, both now and in eternity.

On this foundation the apostle goes on to remind the church at Rome of the great mercy of God in sending the Gospel to the Gentiles that those who had not known the truth before should see “and they that have not heard shall understand”. He affirms how God sent him forth as “the minister of Jesus Christ to the Gentiles, ministering the gospel of God, that the offering up of the Gentiles might be acceptable, being sanctified by the Holy Ghost” and again expresses his great desire to come unto Rome to preach the Gospel unto the saints there face to face, and to fellowship with the brethren there, being refreshed with them. Yet Paul must first visit the saints at Jerusalem (15:25) and in so doing he reminds his Gentile readers of their unity with both Jewish and Gentile believers and of the love the Gentiles in the church should show their Jewish brethren, for having received of the Jews’ “spiritual things, their duty is also to minister unto them in carnal things”.

Above all, Paul’s great longing and desire in coming to the church at Rome is to preach the Gospel, to preach Christ, to bring the “fulness of the blessing of the gospel of Christ” (Romans 15:29). Paul was sent with a message. He had a message to deliver, and that message, “the faith” was that which was “once delivered unto the saints” (Jude 1:3). Paul’s message, his gospel, didn’t vary. He preached the same message in Rome as he did in Jerusalem. The same gospel in Galatia as he did in Ephesus. The same message of the cross, of “Christ crucified” in Corinth as he declared at Thessalonica. He had one message, one gospel, one faith, which had been delivered once by God, through revelation, by His servants to the church. Having been taught that message – the faith – Paul was sent forth to preach it, and his great longing was that the saints at Rome might know it, not just in part, and not just in the head, but in all its fullness, in all its riches, in the inward man, both in heart and mind, that they might be established and built up in the truth, that the “blessing of the gospel of Christ” might be theirs, and that God might be glorified in them.

As one sent by God to preach His Gospel, as “a servant of Jesus Christ” Paul not only had a message to deliver to the saints at Rome, but he wrote unto them and would come unto them as one who lived that message, as one who walked in the Truth, as one who served both His Lord and Master, and His brethren, for Christ’s sake. Paul was a servant, a slave, of Jesus Christ, “separated unto the gospel of God” whose life was devoted to the service of others, to “ministering the gospel of God”. Paul led by example. He ministered to others. His exhortations to the brethren to serve one another were borne out by his own life and conduct as he served them. He exhorted them to follow Christ as he followed Christ.

Now, let us consider the lesson set before us here. In at least three places in his epistles the Apostle Paul exhorts those to whom he is writing to follow him (1 Corinthians 4:16, 1 Corinthians 11:1, Philippians 3:17). Paul’s exhortation is not without ground or authority. He is not encouraging others to blindly follow him as a man, or follow his teaching simply because ‘he say’s so’. No, Paul’s exhortation carries weight because of the One that he himself follows, the One who sent Paul to preach the Gospel: even the Lord Jesus Christ. Paul writes “be ye followers of me, even as I also am of Christ“.

Have you ever heard people say “don’t follow a man”? It is a criticism that can often be raised when the ministry of a particular man is commended. The inference is that we should rather follow Christ, than follow men. There is of course truth in this (though the criticism presents a false dichotomy), in that man should never be exalted above his measure, that Christ is pre-eminent in all things, and that ultimately we should be followers of Him who is the Great Shepherd of the sheep, Him who gave His life for the sheep that they might have everlasting life in Him, the forgiveness of sins, and peace and reconciliation with the Father. Scripture rightly warns us in one place to “cease ye from man, whose breath is in his nostrils”. Men, being sinners by nature, may often lead us astray. We must be very wise about whom we follow. Many foolish people have been led to destruction by deceivers, by those who promise much and give little, by those who can ‘sound right’ but ultimately speak of themselves, not of God. Except for the grace of God all men are fallen and at enmity with their Maker. Yet, nevertheless Paul exhorts his hearers to be “followers of me, even as I also am of Christ.”

It is in that final part of Paul’s sentence that we may find the answer to whether or not we should follow men, and, if at all, which men. Paul was a follower of Christ! His exhortation was not simply to follow him, but to follow him as he followed Christ. Paul led his followers to Christ, and that is why they should follow him. By following Paul they followed Christ. It is Christ who appeared to Paul (when he was named Saul) on the Damascus road, revealing Himself to him from heaven above, and sending him forth to preach the Gospel (See Acts 26). Paul was sent by Christ Himself to open the eyes of sinners, “to turn them from darkness to light, from the power of Satan unto God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins, and inheritance among them which are sanctified by faith that is in me [Christ]”Acts 26:18. It is this sending forth by Christ to preach the Gospel which gives Paul’s exhortation to “be ye followers of me” such weight. Christ sent Him to His people to lead them unto Christ. Then should they not follow such a one unto Him who died to save them?

In 1 Corinthians 4 Paul makes a similar exhortation and adds a further reason why he should be followed. “I write not these things to shame you, but as my beloved sons I warn you. For though ye have ten thousand instructors in Christ, yet have yet not many fathers: for in Christ Jesus I have begotten you through the gospel. Wherefore I beseech you, be ye followers of me. For this cause have I sent unto you Timotheus, who is my beloved son, and faithful in the Lord, who shall bring you into remembrance of my ways which be in Christ, as I teach every where in every church.” 1 Corinthians 4:14-17.

The believers at the church at Corinth to whom Paul was writing had been born again by God the Holy Spirit through the preaching of the Gospel through Paul’s lips. Hence Paul called them his “beloved sons” and writes that “in Christ Jesus I have begotten you through the gospel”. So close was Paul’s relationship to these believers, so involved was he in leading them to Christ, so instrumental was he in their conversion that he declares himself to be their father, and they his sons. Whilst it is true that their birth was by the Holy Ghost from above, whilst it is true that only God is their true Father, nevertheless it is God’s means to use the preaching of the Gospel, by the lips of those men He sends forth with it, to bring dead sinners to life. Paul was sent with that Gospel to Corinth , men and women were saved under the preaching of that Gospel and Paul rightly declares that “in Christ Jesus” he had “begotten [them] through the gospel”. Then should they not follow him who faithfully led them to Christ, who faithfully declared Christ to them in the Gospel, by whose words they were born again from above? Though they might have had ten thousand instructors in Christ, was not Paul their ‘father’ by whose preaching they were saved? By Christ, yes, by the Holy Spirit’s regenerating work, yes, by believing the Gospel with God-given faith, yes, but nevertheless by believing that Gospel as delivered unto them by the man whom God sent forth, that Gospel which they heard from Paul’s lips. God begat them through Paul’s preaching of the Gospel of Christ. Then surely they should follow such a man, sent from above to bring them to the One who sent him? “Wherefore I beseech you, be ye followers of me.”

As if these were not good enough reasons – that Paul followed Christ, and that his preaching of Christ’s Gospel had caused his hearers to be born again – Paul sent unto the Corinthians his beloved son Timothy, one faithful in the Lord, to bring them “into remembrance of [his] ways which be in Christ, as [he taught] every where in every church.” Paul’s teaching and conduct confirmed that he was a follower of Christ, one whom God’s children should gladly follow. So Paul sent Timothy to the people to testify of Paul’s character, of his “ways which be in Christ” and of his teaching which he taught “every where in every church” lest Paul’s absence should have caused the Corinthians to become forgetful of his true character in Christ.

Yes, Paul taught others to follow him. But not without cause! He gave here three reasons which should dispel all opposition, which should silence every contrary tongue, which should answer every objection regarding the following of men. Firstly he followed Christ, and hence by following Paul others would be led to Christ. Secondly Christ sent him to preach His Gospel and by the preaching of that Gospel God, through Paul, had brought many to life in Christ Jesus. And thirdly, Paul’s conduct, his “ways which be in Christ” and his teaching in all the churches bore witness to the work of God in him and by him. It proved with what authority he said these things. It demonstrated the fruit by which Paul’s followers might know that He was sent of Christ to lead them to Christ (Matthew 7:15-20). Then how could they not follow him?

Paul’s hearers were right to follow him. In doing so they were not following a man, but following Christ by receiving him whom Christ had sent to them, by believing the word preached by Christ through that man, and by owning the evident work of God seen in Paul, whom they had as an example of one who lived and breathed to serve His Lord and Master, Jesus Christ. “Be ye followers of me, even as I also am of Christ” 1 Corinthians 11:1, “Brethren, be followers together of me, and mark them which walk so as ye have us for an ensample.” Philippians 3:17 (See also 2 Thessalonians 3:7-9 and Hebrews 13:7).

What was true of Paul is true for all those whom God sends to His church to preach the Gospel. Whilst Paul was indeed an apostle, and was unique in that respect, nevertheless those who have followed him are still called from above, still sent by Christ from above, to preach the same Gospel as Paul did. They still come with the authority of the One who sends them, they still declare the same Gospel by which men and women have their eyes opened, are turned from darkness to light, from the power of Satan unto God. It is by the preaching of the same Gospel that God the Holy Spirit quickens dead sinners unto everlasting life in Christ Jesus. It is by the preaching of the Gospel that Christ brings a people, His Bride, unto His Father to glorify Him. And it is the same wonderful work of grace in the lives and characters of those whom God sends forth with His word that makes them examples for others to follow, as they follow Christ. Paul rightly exhorted others to follow him, and in such an exhortation God rightly exhorts us to follow those men whom He sends unto His church as gifts for its edification, as they too follow Christ.

You see, the question is not so much about whether or not we should follow men (for Paul’s exhortations make it clear that we should), but about which men we should follow. So, which men should we follow? Those who follow Christ! For when God purposes to save a people He always sends a man with His Gospel to lead that people unto Christ (Romans 10:14). Paul said, “Be ye followers of me, even as I also am of Christ.” We should follow those who, like Paul, are sent by Christ to preach His Gospel, those who proclaim the same apostolic doctrine: Those who declare the same truths regarding the person and work of the eternal Son of God, the Lord Jesus Christ. Those who declare His divinity, His humanity, His incarnation, His baptism, His visitation, His death, resurrection and ascension, His present ministry from the glory. Those who declare the fall of man and his total depravity in sin by nature. Those who declare the finished work of Christ upon the cross, a free justification of fallen sinners by the blood of Christ, the imputation of the righteousness of God by faith of Jesus Christ unto all who believe on His Name, the forgiveness of sins and reconciliation with the Father for all that election of grace chosen of God in Christ from before the foundation of the world. Those who declare that salvation is of the Lord, entirely of the Lord, entirely by grace from start to finish. Those who declare the threefold work of God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit in salvation. Those who declare the Gospel of Christ, just as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be – just as Paul preached it as the Spirit of God gave him utterance, and as the Spirit continues to do so down through the ages through all those whom He sends in Christ’s Name. These are the men who we should follow, those who follow Christ.

…Whereas others should certainly be avoided. We should test what all men say in the Name of Christ by the scriptures, and if found wanting we should turn from them. We should turn from such who would bring another gospel, and another Jesus, with another spirit (2 Corinthians 11:4). We should turn from such who deny the person of Christ or that He has truly come in the flesh. From such who deny One God in Three Persons, Father, Son and Holy Ghost. From such who question and deny the inspiration and authority of God’s word recorded in all the scriptures and its continual testimony to the person and work of Christ. From such who proclaim salvation by the works or by the will of man. From such who deny the free and sovereign grace of God in salvation. From such who deny God’s eternal purposes and decrees in Christ, in electing a people for whom Christ should die, to bring them to everlasting life in Him. From such who deny the true regenerating work of the Holy Spirit in quickening dead sinners unto life. From such who preach a mixed gospel, a mixture of works and faith, of law and grace, of Sinai and Zion . From such who preach so much of man and so little of Christ that their followers can only be led away from Christ and never led to Him. Such men should be avoided. But, despite these, there are those who do follow Christ, those whom Christ has sent with His Gospel: and those men we should follow. For those men seek for man to be abased and Christ to be exalted, they labour that they should fade from view, that their followers should see “no man save Jesus only”.

To turn our backs on those whom God sends forth with His Gospel; to shy from following them in a pious fear of being found to follow men, is, if those men truly follow Christ, to turn our backs on Christ Himself. To not receive those whom Christ sends to us, is to not receive Christ Himself. To treat with caution and reserve those preachers of the Gospel whom Christ has sent, is to treat with caution and reserve Christ Himself. To turn from all men and to trust only our own interpretation of the scriptures, is, ultimately, to follow ourselves and our own understanding. We are right to be wary of man, and the teaching of men, we are absolutely right to weigh up every word spoken by man by that which we find in the scriptures, but we would be wrong to be so wary that we turn away from the teaching of Christ Himself, by the Spirit, in power, through those men whom He has sent forth to preach His everlasting gospel of salvation, those who minister the Gospel of God.

May we be given grace and discernment from God to know and recognise those whom He sends as gifts to His church, and to follow them as they follow Christ! For to truly follow Christ is to receive those whom He sends with His word, those gifts given to His church for its edification, for the building up of the church, for Christ’s glory!

And may we be found to be true followers of Christ as we follow those who follow Him, that Christ might be glorified in His body on earth, and the Father by Him, for “Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honour, and glory and blessing”. Revelation 5:12.

Amen.

“And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some teachers; For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ: Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ: That we should henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive; But speaking the truth in love, may grow up into him in all things, which is the head, even Christ, From whom the whole body fitly joined together and compacted by that which every joint supplieth, according to the effectual working in the measure of every part, maketh increase of the body unto the edifying of itself in love.” Ephesians 4:11-16

“Then shall the righteous answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungred, and fed thee? Or thirsty, and gave thee drink? When saw we thee a stranger, and took thee in? or naked, and clothed thee? Or when saw we thee sick, or in prison, and came unto thee?

And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.” Matthew 25:37-40

“But now we are delivered from the law, that being dead wherein we were held; that we should serve in newness of spirit, and not in the oldness of the letter.” Romans 7:6

IN chapter seven of Romans Paul teaches the believer’s deliverance from the law, and the effect of the law experimentally upon the awakened child of God. The believer’s relationship to the law, and his lawful deliverance from it in Christ, is a subject which many fail to comprehend clearly and yet it is of such vital importance, being so central to the work of Christ in saving His people.

In order to be delivered from sin and its consequence – death – we must also be delivered from the “strength of sin” – which is the law(1 Corinthians 15:6). It is our deliverance from the law by the death of Christ which Paul, having begun to set before us in chapter 6 now expands upon in chapter 7. In Romans 6 Paul considers the believer’s death and resurrection with Christ, the consequence of which is that, having had his old man crucified with Christ and being risen with Christ the other side of death, he is no longer under the law, but under grace (Romans 6:14).

At the beginning of chapter 7 Paul develops this truth further through the use of an analogy with marriage. Having died to our old husband, the law, Paul shows that we are now married to another, even Jesus Christ, that we “should bring forth fruit unto God” Romans 7:4. He then demonstrates the inability of the law to bring forth any fruit other than that unto death in the believer, and the believer’s absolute need of deliverance from its rule and dominion. In so doing Paul magnifies the law as being good and just in itself, but shows that the fault lies not in the law but in the fallen flesh of mankind – in the sin that dwells within us. Hence the apostle presents the reason why we need to be delivered from the law – that whenever the flesh is placed under the rule of the law the result is simply that sin is “revived” (Romans 7:9) and the flesh brings forth “fruit unto death” (7:5). But praise God that Christ has delivered us from the law (7:6), that He has delivered us “from the body of this death” (7:24), and to what end? That we should “serve in newness of the spirit, and not in the oldness of the letter”, that we “should bring forth fruit unto God” – yes fruit! Fruit that lasts, fruit that is of the Spirit, fruit that is pleasing unto God, fruit that the law could never envision (Romans 6:21), but which the Gospel actually brings forth! (Romans 6:22)

“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law.” Galatians 5:22-23

“Being filled with the fruits of righteousness, which are by Jesus Christ, unto the glory and praise of God.” Philippians 1:11

Yes, Paul rejoiced in his deliverance from the law in Christ for by such a deliverance he came to know peace with God knowing that “there is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit” (Romans 8:1). He knew deliverance from the dominion of sin, being under grace, and became a recipient of that gift of God, eternal life, springing from that “fruit unto holiness” which God wrought by His Spirit. But can you rejoice in this? Has God delivered you from the dominion of sin and the strength of sin? Have you been brought to tread the pathway of Paul through chapter 7, discovering the depths of your own depravity in the flesh when the law of God was applied to your conscience, condemning your every attempt to keep it?

Have you been brought to cry out with Paul, “O wretched man that I am! Who shall deliver me from the body of this death”?

If you have – and every true child of God will – then you’ll find the answer in one place, and one place only… in the death of Christ and His deliverance of His people from all that condemned them. Do you know that deliverance, or do you find yourself still striving to keep a law you can never keep? Still seeking approval before God by something you do?

Many never know this deliverance from legal bondage – and many a ‘teacher’ gladly keeps God’s people under what they call a ‘rule of life’ but which God calls “the ministration of condemnation” (2 Corinthians 3:9). Despite the clarity of God’s word in the seventh chapter of Romans confusion abounds amongst many professing Christians regarding their position with regard to the law. So in order to expound this subject more fully we shall deal with a number of the questions which commonly arise with regard to this.

Many modern, so-called ‘Reformed’, writers teach a lot about the law being the believer’s ‘rule of life’ and the emphasis of their teaching is very much on “doing”, on the practical duties of the believer’s walk – one example being the following, which paraphrases what some have to say about the subject.

“I’m going to discipline myself to godliness. I’m going to work at it. I’m going to engage in sustained daily effort in doing God’s will and obeying God’s requirements. I’m going to deny self and crucify self every day. I’m going to put to death the old life patterns of the old man. I’m going to say ‘no’ to self and say ‘yes’ to Christ every day. As I do these things I will be developing godly habits. I will not give up but I will persist in doing right. I will do what the Scriptures say regardless of how I feel. I will live a commandment-motivated life of holiness oriented towards godliness.”

The modern ‘Reformed’ position claims that salvation is all of grace (without works or law) but when it comes to ‘sanctification’ – by which they mean the believer’s walk – the tendency is to bring in the law (as with the above quote – which gives a good illustration of the thinking).

So let us consider some questions which I have been asked before regarding this…

1. Firstly, what is the actual place for the law as given in Exodus 20 for the true New Testament believer?

2. Secondly, in Ephesians 5 and 6 Paul exhorts believers to good Christian conduct. But in Ephesians 6:1-3 he says: “Children, obey your parents in the Lord: for this is right. Honour thy father and mother; (which is the first commandment with promise;) That it may be well with thee, and thou mayest live long on the earth.” Why does Paul make a direct appeal to the Law (Exodus 20:12) as he now writes in the New Testament times? What’s more, a number of these children could well be believers.

3. And thirdly, the works of the law are essentially “doing” things, and whilst it may be understood that these works are not meritorious as far as salvation is concerned, nevertheless allied to 2) above, when we come to the last part of nearly all of Paul’s epistles we find a whole catalogue of commandments (or precepts). If the believer is bound by these precepts, then is there not a sense in which his rule of conduct is the precept? If so, how does this differ to the law as a rule of life? A particular reference might be 1 Thessalonians 5: “Rejoice evermore, Pray without ceasing. In every thing give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you. Quench not the Spirit. Despise not prophesyings” … and so on.

In answering these questions let’s make some brief comments to begin with… Yes, the teaching that ‘the law is the believer’s rule of life’ is predominant amongst those who call themselves ‘Reformed’. It is the ‘third use’ of the law, they say. However the Reformers themselves had differing understandings of the law, for example Luther’s teaching is quite different to Calvin’s on this (in many ways Luther being clearer on such matters than Calvin), so we have to ask what gives these modern men the right to take the title ‘Reformed’ to themselves? As a title it doesn’t even give a clear idea of their teaching as the Reformers had a wide range of different ideas about various things – so ‘which’ Reformer are they following? If their teaching be examined it is more akin to the Puritans than the Reformers, and even then only a certain section of the Puritans who were themselves diverse in their teaching.

Consider the paraphrase given above. Whilst some of the sentiments are in the right place it nevertheless should remind us of the self-confident promise of obedience which the children of Israel made in Exodus 24:3 “All the words which the LORD hath said will we do”. Well, how long did that promise last? Whilst Moses was still in the mount they rose up to play and fell into all manner of sin…

…and that’s the whole point of the law. It finds out man’s sin – it brings it to the surface. For “By the law is the knowledge of sin” Romans 3:20. Not the knowledge of righteousness, note, but the knowledge of sin. The law was given to show man his sin, to expose it, to bring him in guilty before God. And it didn’t take long with the children of Israel.

Frankly, would not any true child of God shudder to utter words such as “I will do what the Scriptures say… I will live a commandment-motivated life… I’m going to discipline myself to godliness” with such self confidence? Why? Because they know from bitter experience that they can’t last but one hour in such a pathway! As soon as they proudly say “All the words which the LORD hath said I will do” they fall into sin in an instant, and their very words condemn them. For sin isn’t just what is done outwardly, but it is all the inward thoughts, motives, desires and feelings which we can hide from others but which are painfully apparent to ourselves when God the Holy Spirit makes us aware of what is within, taking the veil away from our heart and eyes (2 Corinthians 3:14-18). In our ignorance and the darkness and deadness of the flesh we might not have known these things, but a quickened child of God knows what proceeds from his heart and he finds the law to be a killing letter and nothing more. Oh, yes, it might prescribe conduct which is excellent, and for that he loves it, but he finds no ability in himself to keep it – as we see in Romans 7 – hence he cries out for One to deliver him from this body of sin and death… and in the Gospel he finds such a Deliverer!

But, as mentioned in the questions presented above, what might we make of the precepts and exhortations which are to be found in the New Testament…? Does their existence not argue for a continuation of the law in some fashion? The simple answer is No. Why not? Because the law is more than simply precepts. The fact that both law and gospel may have precepts does not mean that they are essentially similar, but in ‘different packaging’. They are, in fact, diametrically opposed both in nature and character. Their whole principles are totally diverse, so that Gospel precepts are on a completely different footing and basis to those found in the law.

The law is founded entirely upon the basis of works, with a motivation of self righteousness and fear of the law’s penalty, making demands of man regarding what he must do. Whereas the Gospel reveals God’s grace to man and is characterised by faith and love – which is the believer’s motivation towards obedience to Christ, as led by the Spirit, outworking that which God has wrought in the heart – because the Gospel declares what God has done and what Goddoes – for, and in, His people.

The law says ‘do and live’. The Gospel says ‘live and do’. Man can’t do under the law, so he dies. But man is made alive by the Gospel so he ‘does’. The Gospel does not do away with all ‘doing’ but it makes men alive and gives them not only the ability to do but also the will (for it is God who worketh in us “both to will and to do of His good pleasure” Philippians 2:13), so that anything it exhorts, it also provides grace and ability to do, hence Christ’s yoke is no burden and His commandments are not grievous. It is by the Gospel, as delivered from the law, that fruit is brought “forth unto God” (Romans 7:4.)

But, these modern ‘Reformed’ scholars tell us, that that’s the whole point. Christ gives us life in the Gospel and then sends us back to Moses to ‘sanctify’ us, as we now have the ability to do what Moses commanded in the law. But in this they greatly err (What! Is Christ subservient to Moses?). Yes, they err, because the law is not simply a set of precepts, or exhortations, similar to those found in the New Testament epistles which we can now ‘set ourselves to doing’. The law is law! A law is a set of commandments with penalties attached on failure of doing. If you go back to the commandment “Thou shalt not covet”, then when you do covet, you will find yourself back under its penalty. “But”, some say, “its penalty has been met in Christ, so we are freed from its curse”. Yes, we are, but that is because we are also freed from its precept – we are “dead to the law”, “not under the law”, “delivered from the law”. As far as the law is concerned we are dead men, whom it can no longer penalise, but whom it can also no longer command.

Law is law – it stands as a whole. You can’t separate the penalty from the commandments. They are forever joined together. If we have been freed from the one then we must have also been freed from the other. Likewise if we put ourselves back under the one (the commandment) then we also put ourselves back under the other when we fail to keep the commandment, hence the curse is back upon us. When Galatians tells us that Christ has freed us from the curse of the law it does not mean that the curse has been ‘detached’ from the law – it means we are freed from the law entirely, both curse and commandment.

So, to return to our questions…

1. What place does the law as given in Exodus 20 have for the believer?

The law stands as that which once condemned the believer, from which he has been forever delivered. It gave him a knowledge of sin, whilst also demonstrating the holiness and goodness of God. It demonstrates to him the justice of God and points in measure to the Gospel and what Christ did in delivering him from the law’s penalty. But as to his actual relationship to the law now, the believer is dead to it. It has exacted its penalty upon him, in Christ, and with Christ he has died. The law has no more to say to a dead man (which the believer is in the sight of the law, though now risen and alive in Christ, the other side of death). It is neither his rule, nor his guide. It cannot be used as ‘guidance’ for it is still law – to take its commands, but ignore its penalty is to use it unlawfully, not knowing what one says or affirms, for the law is not made for a righteous man, which is what the believer is in Christ. See 1 Timothy 15-11. We simply can’t get past passages such as Galatians 2:19, 2 Corinthians 3, Romans 6:14, Romans 7:1-6 and so on, in relation to this. The common ‘Reformed’ arguments about these passages either referring only to justification (and not sanctification), or referring to the ‘judicial’ or ‘ceremonial’ parts of the law, and not the Ten Commandments, are, to be plain, just sheer sophistry. They don’t hold water. They make a mockery of these texts which are plain, simple English stating plain truth – we are dead to the law, that we might serve God (now, in our walk, in what many call our ‘sanctification’). We cannot serve God whilst still alive to the law, whatever the legalist might argue. The fact is that all who go to the law in their self-will break it continually, and they can only have any sense of having kept it if their eyes are blinded to their real state, and the totally depravity of their hearts. Hence they demean God’s holy law by bringing it down to their own meagre, sinful, fleshly level. Not only that but they treat it unlawfully by using it as ‘advice’, severing it from its curse, and dividing it into three by rejecting the ceremonial and judicial ‘parts’ and retaining what they call the ‘moral’ part – the Ten Commandments. This is not to use the law lawfully, but is to treat it with contempt, to be ‘anti-law’, or against the law, hence this is Antinomianism, properly so called.

However, the law is part of the overall teaching of scripture, and in the sense that all scripture is profitable to us in various ways it therefore still has its use. But scripture must be divided rightly, and not all scripture applies to all men at all times. Few ‘Reformed’ writers would claim that the dietary laws of the Old Testament apply to New Testament believers – they have no problem whatsoever in seeing that (yet the fact is that the Bible never divides the Ten Commandments from the rest of the law, including the ‘judicial’ and ‘ceremonial’ aspects – the whole stands as one – the Law of Moses – and we are either under all of it, or under none of it – indeed the Gentiles were never under the law in the sense that the Jew was, and yet were, and are still accountable to God as shown in Romans 2). These writers also clearly see that the Old Testament priesthood and sacrificial system has gone. Is all that teaching regarding those things in the Old Testament of no use to us now then? No, it is of much use as it sets forth the Gospel in type and figure. So, too, does Exodus 20, in that it shows forth God’s holiness and justice, it gives a knowledge of sin (most especially when applied by the Spirit as Paul found in Romans 7, when “the commandment came”), it shows what Christ delivered us from. But we, being delivered, are now no more under those Ten Commandments than we are under the dietary or judicial parts of the law. They have no power to condemn us. For “who shall lay any thing to the charge of God’s elect? It is God that justifieth. Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us.” Romans 8:33-34.

2. Why does Paul make a direct appeal to the Law in Ephesians 6?

Regarding our second question consider Ephesians 6. Yes, Paul refers here to Exodus 20:12, and in fact elsewhere in the New Testament a number of the other commandments are quoted. I think we can make some conclusions from this. First of all, we might ask that given that the New Testament does in fact quote most of the commandments why do most ‘Reformed’ writers have such a problem with those who might state that the Gospel, not the law, is the believer’s ‘rule of life’? Why do they not just agree with that statement, given that nine of the commandments can be found recorded in the New Testament also? Why not? Because deep down they have a legal spirit which gravitates towards law and not Gospel (and in addition they also cling to the Sabbath commandment which is not repeated as such in the New Testament). The fact is, we can only conclude, that they don’t really rejoice in the deliverance we have from the law, because the law has not really been applied to their conscience before being brought to Christ, hence they don’t know the liberty of the child of God in Christ. Those who know what it is to be slain by the law are glad to be freed from it.

But why does the New Testament repeat these commands in various places then (for example Romans 13:8-10)? Well, there is a difference between ‘right and wrong’ and law. The law as stated before is law – it has commandments with penalties attached, which cannot be divorced from it. However right and wrong exist apart from law, because ‘right’ concerns the very character of God with whom we have to do, who is just, holy and righteous. It is wrong to worship other gods, whether the law says it or not. Before the law was ever given at Sinai, it was still wrong to worship idols. Thus our deliverance from the law does not make us free to serve idols – no, it delivers us from a law which dictates one thing, but actually causes us to do the opposite. Our nature in the flesh, when commanded not to do something ends up doing the opposite, and the law then condemns us. That is the nature of the law and the effect it has upon our flesh, so we need to be delivered from it.

But that doesn’t alter the fact that it is still right to worship the one true God, and it is right, whilst in this world, for example, to honour our parents. (Nevertheless such a command, and in fact several of the ten commandments, tend to regard our conduct whilst in this world – whereas when we enter heaven they won’t have the same role, as there we won’t be given in marriage and we won’t have children, for example. So such commands are types and shadows in that they point us to what is spiritual, that we are God’s children, that we are Christ’s bride and so on). Hence Paul, in context, refers back to the commandments because what they say is still “holy”,“just” and “good” (Romans 7:12) and as believers we certainly don’t seek to break them. No, through the Gospel we actually fulfill them, because the Gospel gives us faith, which works by love, and love is the fulfilling of the law. It is in this context that Paul quotes most of the commandments in Romans 13 – not to enforce the commandments, or to put the believer back under them, but to illustrate that the love wrought by God through the Gospel actually fulfills the law.

Nevertheless, despite there being exhortations and precepts in the New Testament there is a world of difference between the exhortatory nature of the epistles, and the cold, commanding, nature of the law. So… to address our third question…

3. When we come to the last part of nearly all of Paul’s epistles we find a whole catalogue of commandments (or precepts). If the believer is bound by these precepts, then is there not a sense in which his rule of conduct is the precept? If so, how does this differ to the law as a rule of life?

In the epistles there are many exhortations and precepts. However there is a great difference between the nature of these -and the context in which they are given – and the law. Whereas the law uttered a commandment and exacted a penalty of death if broken, the gospel presents a message of life and then encourages and exhorts the believer with that life to walk in a way which is in accord with his natural desire and inclination in the new man. The new man of grace knows to do right, he loves to do right, he loves to follow the Lord and show love to the brethren. The exhortations in the epistles simply address this new man of grace and encourage him in such a pathway, and exhort to mortify the flesh, for the flesh always wars against the Spirit. As with Christ’s commandments -His yoke – such exhortations are not grievous, they are not a burden, but are gladly taken up by the child of God. As the Gospel is not ‘Antinomian’ (against the law), some of these exhortations will be in accord with that set forth in the law, and that love encouraged and exhorted in the Gospel will in fact fulfill the law, because as the faith of the believer is drawn out, that faith worketh by love (Galatians 5:6) and love fulfills the law (not by looking to the law, but by just living out that life of faith and love, doing what is natural to it, as exhorted in the epistles).

We must keep in mind the difference between the earthly man in the flesh, and the new, heavenly man of grace in the Spirit. As believers we were once entirely in the flesh, the offspring of Adam, dead in trespasses and sin, but now those of us who believe have been crucified with Christ, and have risen again from the dead, having a new life in Him, being His offspring, of the Last Adam, the Second Man – the heavenly man. The law respected earthly man in the flesh and his conduct in this world. The Gospel brings men into newness of life in Christ and it respects their heavenly nature in Him, their walk in the Spirit and their being led out of this world unto the new heaven and new earth. Hence the Gospel regards heavenly things, not earthly things (Colossians 3). Indeed we are spoken of as being seated in heavenly places now (Ephesians 2:6). Then what does a command not to covet our neighbour’s house or wife have to do with that? What does a command to keep the sabbath day holy have to do with a realm where we dwell in righteousness in an endless day, an eternal sabbath? How could such a command be broken in such a state and in such a realm? (In reality the command is broken spiritually now by ceasing to rest in Christ alone and returning to work at keeping the law…)

So, the Gospel, rightly seen, respects our new man of grace who is heavenly. It tells us to reckon ourselves dead to this world, to mortify the deeds of the flesh. We are to think of ourselves in Christ in heaven, as citizens of heaven (* see note), to have our gaze set there, not on earthly things. Whereas to use the law as a rule of life is to be taken up with earthly things. It is to be earthly minded – but Christ has brought us into newness of life, in His Gospel! Yes, the Gospel has exhortations, for we are still in this world, and we do still have the flesh. But the exhortations are always given in a context. What is that context? In the Doctrine of Christ – the Gospel. They follow on from the doctrinal parts of the epistles which set forth Christ and His work. Only after having set the believer’s gaze upon Christ do the apostles then exhort the new man of grace to follow Christ by walking in various ways. This is very different to the law, which has nothing to do with faith, for the “law is not of faith” and which simply says “Thou shalt” or “Thou shalt not”. The Gospel first declares Christ, conveys life, and then directs that life. For we walk not by sight (looking upon earthly things) but by faith (looking unto heavenly things).

Certainly the Gospel precepts respect our conduct and could therefore be described as a rule of conduct – in fact the Gospel as a whole will govern our conduct. We could even say that the whole word of God is a rule of conduct (because ultimately Christ is our ‘rule of life’, as set forth in the Gospel, and as set forth in all the scriptures, for He is our life [see also Galatians 6:13-16 for mention of ‘this rule’]). But to say that the law, in particular, is our rule of life is to go to that very part of the word of God which would condemn us – how foolish! (2 Corinthians 3). But, yes, the Gospel precepts do direct us, because the Spirit does not work in a vacuum. Galatians 5 tells us that if we are led by the Spirit we are not under the law. But the Spirit does not direct us apart from the word of God – He uses that word and applies it to us on a daily basis. Rather than having us mechanically going to a fixed set of rules (such as the ten commandments) seeking to obey them by our own will-power, the believer is directed by the Spirit in a living way and given grace to walk in that way. The believer submissively follows the Spirit’s leading, and each day the Spirit leads him in the scriptures, applying one passage one day, another passage another day and directing his pathway in a living way, appropriate for the time and circumstance he finds himself in.

Ultimately this is a pathway of faith – Faith which works by love. This is the nature of the Gospel and the pathway in which the believer walks. It is very different to a pathway of works, or of a legalistic mind.

However, it is not good enough to simply say “the gospel is my rule of life, not the law”, because many bring a legal spirit into the gospel. They simply turn Gospel precepts into legal commands, strive to perform them in their own strength (and hence ignore the leadings of the Spirit and ultimately grieve Him), and effectively condemn others if they don’t walk as the Gospel directs. But we are not to use the Gospel in such a judgmental fashion, nor are we to set to follow its precepts in our own strength. We must never lose sight of the fact that the Gospel is on an entirely different principle to the law – it is about faith! And this faith is not of ourselves “it is the gift of God” (Ephesians 2:8). For “the just shall live by faith” (Romans 1:17). Neither must we lose sight of the central truth of the Gospel to which such God-given faith is directed – “Christ and Him crucified”. Only when the eye of faith is continually set upon Christ, does a sheep then follow its Shepherd. And when exhorted to look to Him alone, the exhortations to mortify the deeds of the flesh, or control the tongue, or flee fornication, or rejoice evermore, are gladly received and performed.

We made mention of 1 Thessalonians 5: “rejoice evermore”, “pray without ceasing”, “in every thing give thanks”. Well, such exhortations demonstrate what we have just been considering. The believer, whose eye is set upon Christ, will gladly “rejoice evermore” for he sees Christ, his reason for rejoicing, he will gladly “pray without ceasing” for he is looking to Christ from whence his help comes, he will happily “give thanks”, for he sees the One to whom he is thankful, he will “despise not prophesyings” for he loves to hear of Christ, and he will “grieve not the Spirit” for the Spirit leads him to Christ whom he loves and to whom he gladly goes.

So, in summary: the law is about works and respects this world. But the Gospel is about faith, concerning Christ, and respects the world to come. The just shall live by faith, and the precepts of the Gospel are not grievous to faith, because faith works by love, and as James rightly tells us (James 1:17), faith without works is dead, being in reality a mere profession of faith, but true, living faith always produces fruit, it always produces the works of faith, as led by the Spirit. For “If ye be led by the Spirit, ye are not under the law.” Galatians 5:18.

(* Someone had the following to say on this subject which is worth repeating here: “I remember reading of a believer being accused of depreciating the law because he maintained that he was not under it. His reply was that the law of, say Australia, was a good law, and just, but he was not under it because he was a citizen of England. Likewise he acknowledged that the Siniatic law was a good law, and just, but he was not under it as he was a citizen of Zion.”)

–ooOOoo–

But let us consider some further questions which may arise on this matter.

What, for example, does Paul mean when he says in Romans 7:22 “For I delight in the law of God after the inward man” and also in Romans 7:25 “I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then with the mind I myself serve the law of God; but with the flesh the law of sin”?

Why did he say that with his mind he served the law of God? If the law has nothing to do with the believer, then why did Paul “delight in the law of God after the inward man”?

Well, firstly it must be noted that these verses come at the end of Romans 7 and they must be read in the context of the whole chapter. The context, as we’ve seen, being that Paul is demonstrating that we are“dead to the law by the body of Christ” (Romans 7:4) that we should be married to another – even to Christ – that we should bring forth fruit unto God. Clearly we could not bring forth fruit unto God until we died to our old ‘husband’, the law.

In expounding that truth Paul seeks to show just why we needed to be delivered from the law. He goes on throughout the chapter to show the effects that the law had upon his flesh. He demonstrates that the “motions of sin, which were by the law, did work in our members to bring forth fruit unto death”. Thus, whilst the law demanded that which was good, nevertheless, because of our sinful flesh it actually caused us to sin and bring forth fruit unto death.

But does that mean that the law is bad? That it is flawed, or sinful? No! As we noted, Paul goes on to show that the fault lies not with the law itself but with our sinful flesh. “What shall we say then? Is the law sin? God forbid.”….”Wherefore the law is holy, and the commandment holy, and just, and good”. No, the law itself is good. The fault lies with sin in our flesh… “But sin, that it might appear sin, working death in me by that which is good, that sin by the commandment might become exceeding sinful” (Romans 7:13). Hence the need is not for the law itself to be abrogated, for the law itself is good, but for us to be delivered from the law, because the fault lies in us, in our sinful flesh – therefore we need to have died to the law.

So, having demonstrated in verses 4-6 that we have died to the law, that we might be married to Christ to bring forth fruit, Paul then shows that this was necessary, not because the law itself was a bad thing, but because the effect it had upon our flesh was to bring forth sin unto death. Paul shows the law itself to be good. But from v14-21 Paul shows the effect that the law has upon him as a believer. Whilst he has a new man of grace which wishes to serve God, nevertheless he still has the flesh which sins, so he finds that though he wishes to do good, the effect of the commandment when it comes to him is to cause him to sin (v19). Verses 22 and 25 simply reinforce the contrast between the desire of Paul in the new man of grace (to serve God and walk righteously) and the outworking of sin in his flesh under the commandments of the law. Paul delights in the law of God after the inward man (of course he does – the law is good, in that what it commands is good, and the inward man loves what is good), but there is another law in his members, in his flesh, which causes him to sin (v23). Verse 25 shows that his mind would serve the law of God, it would do what it demands because the law is ‘holy’, ‘just’ and ‘good’, but the flesh serves the law of sin.

We see the contrast here between what is served. The one is the law of sin, the other is the law of God. What Paul is showing is that his mind does not serve sin. It serves God. In that the law of God teaches against sin his mind as a believer must agree with the law of God. But this is not because he is under the law, serving it as his rule of life, but because he is under grace, with the Gospel as his rule of life. Gospel, or evangelical, righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the law (Matthew 5:19) and hence the law is fulfilled by one who walks in the Gospel, by grace (Romans 8:4).

So does the statement in Romans 7:25 that Paul with the mind serves the law of God mean that the law is his rule of life? No, it cannot, because Paul has clearly shown in 7:4-6 that he has been delivered from the law, and that he has a new ‘husband’. Then why does he state in verse 25 that his mind serves it? Simply to show that the law itself (in terms of what it commands) is not the problem, but his flesh is. Whilst in the flesh (which we still have until we enter heaven’s glory) the law will always have the same effect on it, so that whilst our believing mind might say that the law is good and we would wish to walk accordingly, our flesh rebels and causes us to fall into sin and under the law’s condemnation. Our only hope is to be delivered from this body of death and to be delivered from the law. And that is just what Christ in the Gospel does – He delivers us, from sin, from death and from the law.

In Romans chapter 7 Paul is showing that we are dead to the law, we are delivered from it, but not because the law itself is bad, but because the flesh is sinful. Thus he shows that the law is good, just and holy, and that he delights in the law of God after the inward man. But such delighting in the truth of it, in the righteousness of it, does not in any way alter the fact that Paul needed to be delivered from its bondage – he needed to be married to another, even to Christ, he needed to be delivered from the rule of the law and brought into union with Christ, and under His rule, whom he now serves, not in the letter (as under the law), but in the Spirit (as in the Gospel). “For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh; that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit”. Romans 8:3-4. It is our being delivered from the law by having died to it in Christ that causes us to fulfill the law. We walk in a way which brings forth righteous conduct which fulfills what the law requires, but not by the law, by being under its rule, but by the Spirit, by being under Christ’s yoke in the Gospel, by walking by faith – for faith works by love, and love is the fulfilling of the law.

(And whilst Paul may indeed have delighted in the law of God after the inward man, he certainly delighted much more in the Gospel as is abundantly evident elsewhere – for example, Romans 1:16-17, 8:12-18, 8:38-39, 12:33 etc – for the Gospel concerns heavenly things, not earthly; the glory in the Gospel far exceeds the glory seen in the law as Paul clearly demonstrates in 2 Corinthians 3, and the Gospel actually fulfilled all that which the law could only demand, and far, far, more than that!)

But, it may be asked, does not the Christ Himself uphold the law? For example in Matthew 5:17-19 Jesus states “Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil. For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled. Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven: but whosoever shall do and teach them, the same shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.” Hear Christ says that “whosoever shall do and teach them, the same shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.” Do and teach what? Does not the whole context contrast “the prophets”, i.e the law as given by Moses?

Here we have a passage commonly used by those who would put the believer back under the law. So let us consider this question. Does Christ uphold the law? Certainly Christ upholds the law! He was made under it, He magnified it and made it honourable. And so would we – the fact that we are delivered from the law by death does not in any way alter the law, abrogate the law, or take away from it. The law continues to stand in all its glory, rectitude, immutability and justice. All that it commands is unalterable. But, praise God, all that it commands has been answered and fulfilled in the death of Christ for us, who believe on Him. It is our having died in Christ to the law that delivers us from its rule. Christ never destroyed the law nor altered the law, but that does not mean that the believer remains under it. No, Christ fulfilled the law, He answered its every charge against us, and legally delivered us from it. In the Gospel all has been fulfilled. “For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth” Romans 10:4.

In Christ the believer is delivered from the law, from its curse, and from its commandment and is brought into the “law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus” (Romans 8:2) which made him free from the law of sin and death. The Spirit of life in Christ Jesus, by which the believer walks in the Gospel (which is the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus), causes him to fulfill the righteousness of the law (Romans 8:4) and hence he does not seek to break the commandments, but does them and indeed he teaches them. But the fact that he does and teaches them does not mean that he does what the commandments of the law demand by the law, nor does it mean that he teaches the law to be the believer’s rule of life. No, it means that he does what the law demands, only by walking in the Gospel and Gospel righteousness – by the Spirit – for the Gospel brings in an everlasting righteousness of a character and nature far exceeding anything that the law ever demanded or required. Gospel, or evangelical, righteousness is not ‘less than’ nor contrary to the law, but it exceeds what the law demands, hence any under the Gospel as their ‘rule of life’ will do what the law demands, not by the law, but by the Spirit through the Gospel. Believers love the law of God for they see the holiness, justice and goodness of God in it, and they see the perfect fulfillment of it in Christ. They “delight in the law of God after the inward man” for they know it is good, but they rejoice much more that Christ has delivered them “from this body of death” (Romans 7:24) to walk no more after the flesh, as under the law, but after the Spirit, as under the Gospel – the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus.

Believers don’t cease to do what the law commands, for the Gospel causes them to walk in a way which fulfills the law, and neither do they cease to teach the law but they do teach the right use of the law. They teach that “by the law is the knowledge of sin” (Romans 3:20) and that by “the deeds of the law shall no flesh be justified” in God’s sight. They teach that the commandment of the law is right, that the “law is holy, and the commandment holy, and just and good” (Romans 7:12), but they also teach that sin, taking occasion by the commandment, deceives us and slays us (Romans 7:11), and that in order to keep the commandments, to fulfill the law, we must be delivered from it (Romans 7:6) and delivered from this body of death (7:24), that we must become dead to the law that we might bring forth fruit unto God (7:4). Believers know, from bitter experience, like Paul in Romans 7, that whilst under the law, whilst bound by it, whilst alive to it in any way, shape, or form, their flesh will simply bring forth sin, their members will bring forth fruit unto death (7:5). But they see in the Gospel a deliverance from sin, from the flesh, from the law and its rule and condemnation – they see a deliverance in Christ, who died for them, and in whom they died, and in whom they rise again having the Spirit of life in Him. This brings forth fruit unto God, this fulfills the righteousness of the law (Romans 8:4), and nothing elsecan.

The believer is dead to the law that he might live unto God (Galatians 2:19). He walks under a new rule, the rule of a new creation in Christ, the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus. This causes him to walk in Evangelical righteousness which far exceeds that demanded by the law. It is this righteousness which Christ expounds in Matthew 5-7 where He continually contrasts what the law says (not what the scribes said about the law, notice, but what the law actually says) with what He says in the Gospel – “But I say unto you…” Yes, the Gospel brings in a righteousness which not only fulfills the law’s demands, but far exceeds it, hence Christ can say in Matthew 5:20 “That except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the kindom of heaven.” Under the Gospel Christ’s sheep have such a righteousness – Gospel righteousness, evangelical righteousness, the righteousness of God by faith of Jesus Christ, which soars above anything the law ever demanded (* see note below). But also, unlike the law, this isn’t a righteousness demanded of men which they cannot perform, but a righteousness wrought by God – the righteousness of God by faith of Jesus Christ – and given to men by God, by His grace! It is this righteousness which God both imputes to His people and brings forth in them by His Spirit as they walk by faith looking unto Jesus their Saviour. It is called the “righteousness of faith”, not the righteousness of the law (Romans 10:5-6) and such righteousness is seen by confession of the Lord Jesus and belief in the heart that God raised Him from the dead. Such faith is a believing unto righteousness and a confessing unto salvation (10:10). “For the just shall live by faith” – dead to the law, but alive unto God and married to Christ, “even to him who is raised from the dead, that we should bring forth fruit unto God.” And it is this very righteousness of God which is revealed in the Gospel and which gives the Gospel its power to save…

… “For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek. For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith: as it is written, The just shall live by faith.” Romans 1:16-17

Amen.

(* It is a failure to recognise the distinction between the righteousness of God as revealed in the Gospel and the righteousness of the law, which characterises the thinking of many who fail to see the truth of the believer’s deliverance from the law. Some theologians speak of the Ten Commandments as being a ‘transcript of the Divine nature’. Some even go as far as to describe it as ‘the express image of God’s person’. Yet scripture never refers to the law in this way – in fact it is Christ who is referred to as the express image of God’s person in Hebrews 1:3. However to those who consider that the Mosaic law is a transcript of the Divine nature they can not envision deliverance from the law because they have essentially made the law itself synonymous with God Himself – which scripture never does [yes, the law reveals God’s holiness and justice, but the full revelation of God’s righteousness and His character is found in Christ in the Gospel]. But the law to these people is everywhere, it is inescapable. Hence even the other side of death, in heavenly glory they can only see the believer as still bound by the law, for he is still under God’s authority. Yet scripture actually teaches a distinction between the righteousness of the law, which was given for earthly man whilst in this world, and the righteousness of God as revealed by the faith of Christ in the Gospel, which concerns the new man of grace in Christ – a heavenly righteousness for a heavenly kingdom. The believer is delivered from the law but has the righteousness of God in Christ. He is under the law of faith, the law of Christ, the law of liberty and the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus. What laws are these? They are those laws which in the New Covenant God puts in the mind of His people and writes upon their hearts (Hebrews 8:10). They are, indeed, the Gospel, which gives faith, love, liberty and everlasting life in Christ Jesus to all those chosen in Him unto salvation.)

“But now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets; Even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe: for there is no difference” Romans 3:21-22

The man who has heard the sound of God’s alarm in the Gospel against his sin, who has been awakened to his lost condition, having striven to come to God in his own strength, yet found it useless, finding the law of God to be beyond his keeping – only condemning even his righteousnesses as filthy rags before God – is, through this, by the work of the Holy Spirit, brought to know the conviction of his sin before God.

In such a state, feeling the wrath of God to be revealed against all his unrighteousness and ungodliness, knowing himself to be guilty before God, having been given a knowledge of his own sin by God’s holy law as impressed upon him inwardly by the Holy Ghost, such a wretched, convicted sinner may well be brought to cry out in desperation with Job of old… “How shall man be just with God?” Job 9:2

Well… how shall man be just with God?

How, when our sins condemn us? How, when the wrath of God is revealed against our sins?

How, when our every attempt to keep God’s law ends in utter failure?

How, when even our best deeds, our righteousnesses, are as filthy rags? (Isaiah 64:6)

How? How shall man be just with God? … when God requires perfect righteousness? When our sins can only separate us from a holy God?

How?

This is the very question which Paul begins to answer with the glorious ‘But now’ of Romans 3:21. That wonderful turning point in the revelation of the Gospel in which Paul proceeds from Romans 3:21 through to chapter 5 to set forth the good news of the Gospel and the answer to man’s greatest need – to be made just before God!

“But now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets; Even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe: for there is no difference” Romans 3:21-22

Paul opens the epistle to the Romans by first introducing to us the glorious Person of Christ in Romans 1:1-4. Then, having painted, as it were, on a canvas the bad news of man’s condition before God from chapter 1:18 to chapter 3:20 Paul begins in Romans 3:21 to set against this backdrop the good news of the work of Christ in the Gospel. Having shown what man has done in his rebellion against God… what you have done… what I have done… Paul now proceeds to show what God has done in Christ to save His people from their sins.

Here we see that work by which God justifies His people, how He redeems them, ransoms them. Here is that work of faith which brings in the righteousness of God, which quenches the wrath of God against the sins of His people. That work which propitiates, silences, puts out, that wrath … completely!

“For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. For scarcely for a righteous man will one die: yet peradventure for a good man some would even dare to die. But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us” Romans 5:6-8.

“…If we believe on him that raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead: Who was delivered for our offences, and was raised again for our justification” Romans 4:24-25

Yes, man stands guilty before God, yes, the law condemns him, yes, the wrath of God is revealed against all unrighteousness, yes, man lacks the strength, the will, the desire to turn to God…. yes…. But now!!

But now…. Though all men have sinned in Adam, though all have fallen short of the glory of God, though all have gone astray, though all lack understanding, though none seeks after God, nevertheless now, but now, we see Another Man, the Second Man, the Last Adam, One who never sinned, One who lived in perfect righteousness, One who was just, One who walked by faith. One who being both God and man could reach from heaven to earth, from time to eternity, from God to man, from the heights of Glory to the depths of despair, from Light unapproachable to the darkest corners of the earth – to the lowest, to the meanest, to the weakest and the most vile, yea, to the chief of sinners, to reconcile such poor, lost, wretched creatures unto their God and Father, not just for a moment but for everlasting, not just for time but for eternity! Here we see Jesus Christ – the Son of God, the Saviour of sinners… Yes, that was then. But now….

But now… we see the righteousness of God manifested. The very righteousness of God in Himself. Not simply the righteousness that God demanded of man in order to continue his mortal existence in this world, that righteousness of the law, as commanded of Israel and delivered by Moses – that was righteousness under the law. But now, we see another righteousness altogether manifested – the righteousness of God as revealed in the Gospel. Thatrighteousness, and that revelation, by which the Gospel becomes the power of God unto salvation (Romans 1:16-17). For without righteousness no man can be just before God, no man can approach unto God, but here, here in the Gospel, God brings in a righteousness acceptable not only to the demands of the law, as given by Moses, but acceptable to God Himself in His very Being, as One who dwells in light unapproachable. But now, the righteousness of God, without the law, is manifested, “being witnessed by the law and the prophets; even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ”. This righteousness was witnessed by the law and the prophets – they pointed to it, foretold of it, foreshadowed it – but not until the coming of Christ in the Gospel, not until God revealed this righteousness in judgment at the cross to be imputed to all who believe on the Son, not until the ‘But now’ of Romans 3:21 did it finally come to light, was it finally revealed, finally manifested in fulfilment of all that had been promised. But now, by the faith of Jesus Christ, the righteousness of God, Divine righteousness, without the law, is manifested!

What is this righteousness? What is the “righteousness of God”? Well, firstly, it is “without the law” or “apart from the law”. Romans 3:21 makes that clear. That is not to say that it is against the law, or contrary to the law, but that it is brought in on another footing, another basis, another principle altogether. This isn’t the righteousness of the law, nor even the righteousness of Christ by the law, but it is the righteousness of Godwithout the law. It is not merely righteousness demanded of men, but Divine Righteousness given to men! (Hence scripture always uses the term ‘the righteousness of God’ in order to emphasise its divinity, the ‘righteousness of Christ’ being a phrase never actually found in Holy Writ). This righteousness was brought in not by the works of the law, but by “the faith of Jesus Christ” (3:21). This is not “the righteousness of Christ with the law…. Even the righteousness of Christ by the works of Jesus Christ”, but “the righteousness of God without the law… even the righteousness of God by faith of Jesus Christ”. It is by faith, not by works, being referred to in Romans 10 as “the righteousness of faith” as contrasted with “the righteousness of the law”. Nor does this refer simply to how this righteousness is received by the faith of the believer, but it refers to how it is established or brought in to the account of the believer in the Gospel – “by faith of Jesus Christ”, “for therein” (in the Gospel) “is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith: as it is written, The just shall live by faith”.

But if this righteousness of God, manifested in the Gospel, is described as “without the law” does that mean that it is contrary to the law? Not at all, for it was “witnessed by the law”,
that law having been given to man by God, having set forth God’s holiness, justice and goodness. Both the law and the gospel have come from the same God, they both reveal His holy character and justice. It is simply that the righteousness of God as revealed by the faith of Jesus Christ in the Gospel is so much greater, so much more glorious, so much more wide-reaching, than anything revealed by the law of Moses could ever describe or set forth. This righteousness of God, as revealed by the faith of Christ, as exemplified by Christ Himself, is the full revelation of God’s righteousness as He is in Himself. It is that righteousness which we need in order to be just with God, in order to stand before Him in perfection, at peace, at one with God the Father. This is a righteousness which not only fulfils the law in every aspect but which completely transcends it, soaring up from man to the very character of God in His infinite Divinity….Think of the light of the sun: the law, as summarised by the Ten Commandments, was like having that light shining through the lattice of the window, through ten panes of glass, as it were. The light emanates from the sun but is obscured by the lattice, and the darkness of the walls around obscure the full light that shines through the lattice of the window. But stand outside, stand under the midday sun and what a contrast there is! How much brighter, how much more dazzling, how much more glorious is the light!

Well, the Gospel, and the righteousness of God revealed in the Gospel, is like the shining of the midday sun! With the law taken out of sight the full glory of God’s righteousness is seen in Christ in the Gospel. The same God is behind both the law and the Gospel, it is the same Sun from whom the light shines (for God does not change)…. But now, what was shrouded under the law, what was concealed, what was behind the veil, what was seen in types and shadows is now fully manifested, now made fully known in Christ… But now… the righteousness of God without the law is manifested… even the righteousness of God by faith of Jesus Christ: “For the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ. No man hath seen God at any time, the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him” John 1:17-18.

“Again, a new commandment I write unto you, which thing is true in him and in you: because the darkness is past, and the true light now shineth.” 1 John 2:8

Romans 1:18 declares the revelation of the wrath of God against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of man. From 1:18 to 3:20 Paul proves all men, both Jews and Gentiles to be under sin, he brings them in guilty before God. He shows that “by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified” in God’s sight, because “there is none righteous, no, not one”.

None righteous, no not one. Not you, not I, no one. There is none righteous. Not in Adam, no. But thank God for the ‘But now’ of 3:21! For God has brought in righteousness for His people, by Another Man!“Even the righteousness of God by faith of Jesus Christ”.

And to what end? To deliver from unrighteousness! To deliver from the wrath to come! To justify the ungodly, not by ignoring their sins, but by righteously judging them in Another. “To declare, I say, at this time his righteousness: that he might be just and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus” (Romans 3:26).

Yes, the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men…

But now… God has revealed His righteousness, by the faith of Jesus Christ, to propitiate His wrath against the sins of His people. To quench it, to answer it, to pacify it. God’s justice rightly burns against all the sins of mankind, all its rebellion, all its hatred, all its enmity, and justice must be satisfied, it must be answered, wrath must be poured out, justice must be exacted upon every transgression, every breach of God’s law, every deviation from God’s righteousness. Having opened the door to the full fury of God’s wrath against his own sin, mankind stands helpless under the revelation of the wrath of God, awaiting the coming of the Last Day and the meting out of judgment against every sin and every sinner who remains in unbelief. That Day fast approaches with relentless pace, and mankind in blind stupidity, sheer foolishness, shuts both its eyes and its ears to the dreadful truth of the Judgment to come.

Yet, those whom God has taught, those whom God has awakened, those whom God has convicted, those who sense the fury of God wrath’s against their sin, cry out in desperation: “How shall man be just with God?”… Yes, they cry out… for mercy!

…Have you? Have you really?

For here, in the Gospel, is God’s answer for such heart-broken, such contrite, sinners – “I have found a ransom”, “A price has been paid”!By whom?Another Man. Here we hear of One who has stepped into the breach. Of one “who was delivered for our offences” (Romans 4:25), who, “while we were yet sinners”, died for us who believe. For when they were yet enemies, God reconciled His people to Himself “by the death of His Son” Romans 5:10.

God’s wrath raged against the sins of His people. But now the righteousness of God is manifested, Christ has been set forth as “a propitiation through faith in his blood” (3:25), by which God’s wrath is quenched, propitiated, by having been poured out, in its entirety, against every sin, every transgression, of every one of His people, upon the One who suffered and died in their stead, the One who redeemed them by His own blood, the One who justified them, the One who ransomed them, the One who owned their offences as His own, the One who took away their sins, blotting them out, having them judged according to the very righteousness of God in His own body, that righteousness which He brought in through judgment to their account, as He looked by faith to His Father, whilst yet stricken, forsaken, and cast out as the Substitute of sinners, accursed on their behalf, nailed to a cross and lifted up above the earth to suffer unimaginable torment and anguish on behalf of those whom He loved. This is how God’s wrath was propitiated, this is how His righteousness was brought in for all who believe, and this is how God justified His people “freely by grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus: Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God; To declare, I say, at this time his righteousness: that he might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus”!

Yes this is how God manifested His righteousness, how He justified His people – through the death of Christ. All is at the cross, all is in Christ’s death. United to Christ all God’s people died with Him, their sins became His, and God judged every one in the Saviour according to His ownrighteousness, His own perfection – and those sins, and that sin, all being entirely blotted out and taken out of the way, the wrath of God from heaven having being silenced for ever against them, nothing remained, nothing was left to be seen, but the righteousness of God in Christ which all His people became in Him –as justified before God: “For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him” 2 Corinthians 5:21. From that very point that righteousness is “unto all” that believe (Romans 3:22), and “upon all”, when, by the work of the Spirit, they are born again from on high, quickened from death to life, translated from darkness to light, and granted faith to trust in the One who washed them from their sins and made them the righteousness of God in Him. For all for whom Christ died will be brought to faith, the righteousness of God being both unto all and upon all them that believe – “for there is no difference”.A people who were once unrighteous, deceived, fornicators, idolaters, adulterers, effeminate, thieves, covetous, drunkards, revilers, extortioners.

“And such were some of you”… But now… “ye are washed… ye are sanctified… ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God” 1 Corinthians 6:11.

Oh, praise God for this ‘But now’, by which righteousness is brought in for those who were unrighteous, by which sinners are justified, sins are remitted, wrath is propitiated, forgiveness is made known, the dead are brought to life, and God and men are reconciled…. And all through the glorious work of Christ, who by faith saved those who are brought tofaith in Him alone for salvation, the Saviour who by grace sought and saved those who sought Him not…

For,HE’S done it all!!

“For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of ourselves: it is the gift of God” Ephesians 2:8

Yes, praise God for the ‘But now’ of Romans 3:21 in the Gospel of God!

For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men…..

Paul, having set forth the doctrine of Christ in the Gospel from chapters 1 to 5 in Romans, then begins to show its consequences in the next three chapters. He commences by asking a question: What shall we say then? … In the light of all that has been written, given what has just been declared, what is the consequence? What shall we say then?

One towering consequence of the work of God in Christ as set forth in the preceding chapters is the gift of faith. What God purposed, and the Son performed, the Spirit must apply, and He applies it to all those whom God justified in Christ at the cross, by bringing them under the sound of the Gospel, by bringing them to hear the message, the word of their salvation, by which they are convicted of sin, quickened unto life by the Spirit of God, converted, brought to repentance, and granted faith both to believe and to rest in Christ alone for salvation. For all whom the Father chose, and the Son redeemed, will be surely born again by the Spirit, having hope in God alone, which hope finds its assurance in faith.

But faith will be tried, faith will be tested, and it is the battles which faith must fight, and in which faith is victorious, which concerns Paul from chapter 6 to chapter 8. Here we see how sin is overcome by righteousness, how death is swallowed up by life, how the law is fulfilled by grace, and how the Spirit mortifies the deeds of the flesh. Here are presented great foes, great mountains to be climbed, great armies to defeat, yet faith overcomes all, faith defeats all, for Christ’s victory ensures faith’s victory. It is because of the triumphant work of God in Christ upon the cross, that the fight of faith will be victorious, and it is this which gives the believer such hope.

This is emphasised repeatedly throughout these three chapters. Paul presents us with each enemy, each foe, each opponent, which must be overcome for the believer to know salvation, and in each case he shows us in the work of Christ how all the opposition has been answered. Here is faith’s triumph, faith’s hope, for “It is God that justifieth”, so “Who is he that condemneth?” Yes, God’s people in Christ are shown to be “more than conquerors” because of the One whose faith brought in the victory, and from whose love they shall never, ever,be separated!

In chapter 6 Paul’s attention is centred upon that great enemy sin, and its inevitable consequence death. Here he shows how faith reckons the believer to be dead to sin, but alive unto God (Romans 6:11) because of the death of Christ for him, the believer having died with Christ and risen with Him (as pictured by baptism), his old man being crucified that sin might be destroyed and that he might be freed from its dominion, no longer being under law, but under grace (6:14), walking in “newness of life” (6:4), being made a servant of righteousness, having “fruit unto holiness, and the end everlasting life”.

In chapter 7 the believer’s deliverance from the law and its condemnation is set before us, as illustrated by the example of marriage, believers having died to their old husband, the law, by the body of Christ, that they should be married to another, “even to him that is raised from the dead”. As a result of being delivered from sin, death and the strength of sin (the law), Paul proceeds in chapter 8 to show how the child of God is delivered from all condemnation, being freed from the law of sin and death by the “Spirit of life in Christ Jesus”. It is this life in the Spirit, this new birth from on high, which is made sure to all God’s seed through the sovereign work of God the Spirit in quickening them unto eternal life in Christ Jesus, by which their eyes are opened to see spiritual things, their ears now hear the voice of the Son of God, their understanding is enlightened, they are delivered from darkness into light, from death into life, from sin into righteousness and from time into eternity. Without such a work man remains in darkness, dead to spiritual things, fallen in sin, condemned under the law, captive under sin’s power, having a mind which is “enmity against God” (8:7).

Jesus tells us in John’s gospel that “Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God” (John 3:3), and how true that is. No matter how much one may study, no matter how much of the scriptures may be read, no matter how much doctrine may be imbibed in the letter, except God quickens us unto eternal life by His Spirit, we remain natural, carnal, darkened by sin, blinded to the truth. How vital then is the new birth. How vital is faith. It cannot be emphasised enough: “Ye must be born again” (John 3:7).

Have you been? Has God given you faith to overcome every enemy of your soul in Christ, or have those enemies overcome you in the deadness of your unbelief?

But what hope there is in this new birth – what victory faith brings! For all whom God justified in Christ are surely born again by His Spirit, are surely brought to faith, having the Spirit of God dwelling in them, the Spirit of Christ – “Christ in you” (Romans 8:10) – by whom they mortify the deeds of the flesh, and are led by the Spirit of God, as being the “sons of God” (8:14). It is this spirit of sonship which Paul considers in the rest of the chapter, its communion with God the Father, its comfort and assurance in the work of God, its victory in Christ, and its absolute and eternally inseparable union with the love of God in Christ Jesus. Oh what a salvation! What a hope!

“O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?The sting of death is sin, and the strength of sin is the law.But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ” 1 Corinthians 15:55-57.

In conclusion, having dealt with the victory of sin by righteousness, of death by life, of law by grace, and of the flesh by the Spirit, Paul returns to his opening question from chapter 6:1 by repeating in chapter 8:31 “What shall we say then to these things?”

Well, what shall we say then to these things? What shall faith say to these things?

“If God be for us, who can be against us? He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things? Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God’s elect? It is God that justifieth.

Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written, For thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.

Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us. For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Romans 8:31-39

“For what saith the scripture? Abraham believed God, and it was counted unto him for righteousness” Romans 4:3

HAVING presented the work of God in justifying sinners “freely by his grace through theredemption that is in Christ Jesus”, Paul goes on at the close of chapter 3 to present three hypothetical questions which some may be inclined to ask in response to such doctrine and to such an emphasis upon faith in the work of God alone. With three brief, yet unequivocal, answers Paul affirms the truth of justification by faith in reply to such doubting opposition.

“Where is boasting then? It is excluded”

“Is he the God of the Jews only? Is he not also of the Gentiles? Yes, of the Gentiles also”

“Do we then make void the law through faith? God forbid: yea, we establish the law.”

It is these three questions, and the answers to them, which Paul proceeds to open up, to expound more fully, throughout chapter 4. Using the life of Abraham as an example he illustrates the total contrast between justification sought by the works of the law, and the free grace of God by which God justifies undeserving sinners through faith. All grounds for boasting are set aside, the blessedness of sins forgiven and righteousness imputed are set before us, the scope and scale of God’s mercy to both Jews and Gentiles is demonstrated, and the law is shown to be established through the righteousness of faith given to all of the seed of promise, all those “of the faith of Abraham”.

Boasting excluded by the Law of Faith… (Romans 4:1-8)

Paul begins by asking, what did Abraham find? What was he taught? (4:1) What did God teach Abraham regarding salvation, regarding justification, that we also need to see before ever we’ll know the blessedness of sins forgiven?

Abraham was taught “as pertaining to the flesh”, that his own works, his own efforts in religion could do nothing to save him – absolutely nothing. They were but ‘filthy rags’ before God, the very best of them being tainted by sin. Such works, such ‘good deeds’ might appear worthwhile and commendable to other men, they might give Abraham something in which to glory in before man, “but not before God” (Romans 4:2). Before God Abraham stood as with all men as a sinner, as ungodly. Yet to be justified before God demands righteousness, but in the flesh, by our own efforts, neither Abraham nor we can produce such perfection.

Abraham discovered that he needed a righteousness provided for him and that justification must be through faith resting in that righteousness. Justification must be the work of God, it must be by grace – else we’d forever remain in our sins. And if of grace then all glory must be to God, and not to man. Then where is boasting? It is excluded.

Notice in Romans 3:27 how Paul answers this question. Boasting is excluded by the law of faith. He refers here to the Gospel, and that faith which is at the heart of the Gospel, as a law, as a principle, in order to contrast it with the law of works. Paul does this to emphasise the contrast between faith and that which characterises the law – works. Hence the Gospel itself is referred to as a law, but a law characterised by faith. Here is a law fulfilled not by working, but through believing! This is a law which brings in righteousness, not by works, but by faith – the “righteousness of faith”.

This righteousness is brought in by God to the account of His people. It is imputed to them. It is altogether outside of them and it owes nothing to their own merit or efforts. This righteousness was wrought by the faith of Christ and is received by the faith of the believer, as the gift of God. Hence all boasting is excluded – and with all the efforts and works of man set at nought – this is how God saved Abraham. Not by works, but by grace. Not through the law, but through faith. If Abraham was justified by works he would have had something to glory in, and salvation would be simply a reward for his works. He would have merited it, he would have earned it, and he would deserve it (4:4). But how couldhe when he was ungodly?

No, what Abraham found, what Abraham came to believe was that salvation is, and must be, by grace alone, that whilst in his sins, that whilst being ungodly, God justified him, his iniquities were forgiven and his sins covered (4:7), his faith being counted for righteousness (4:5). Now of course, this does not mean that Abraham’s faith itself is righteousness, but that God counted it for righteousness, God imputed righteousness to Abraham, because of the righteousness of God in Christ which Abraham looked unto and rested in by faith, that righteousness which Christ brought in to the account of His people when He suffered and died in their place upon the tree, taking their sins as His own, suffering the outpouring of God’s wrath against them, taking away sin, and covering His people with His precious blood shed for them. This was how Abraham was justified and this was what his faith rested in.

Having brought Abraham to such belief, having opened his eyes to the truth, to his own state before God and his need of having his sins forgiven, God then greatly blessed him. Abraham entered into that very same blessing of which David spoke and rejoiced in Psalm 32:

“Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. Blessed is the man unto whom the Lord imputeth not iniquity, and in whose spirit is no guile.”

Oh the blessedness of sins forgiven! To be just before God – forgiven! To be counted righteous before a Holy God!

Yet, this is the very blessing which both Abraham and David knew and believed.

Do you know it? Has God shown you this blessing?

From those of that faith of our father Abraham… (4:9-12)

From 4:9 through to 4:12 Paul deals with the question of just whom does God justify? Does this blessing come upon the Jews only or the Gentiles also? Those who are circumcised or those in uncircumcision?

The answer is emphatic. Not the Jews only, but the Gentiles also. Though this answer was perhaps astounding to the Jew – despite the testimony of the prophets to this blessing of the New Covenant (Hosea 2:23, Zechariah 10:9) – Paul goes on to prove this by showing that faith was reckoned to Abraham for righteousness, not when he was circumcised but before, whilst yet uncircumcised. Circumcision, seen by the Jews as representative of their law (though the law was delivered 430 years later), and of their special relationship as a nation with God, was in fact given to Abraham as a “seal of the righteousness of the faith which he had yet being uncircumcised”. Abraham was not justified by the works of the law, nor because of his natural birth, nor even by his obedience to the command of God regarding circumcision, but through faith in the work of God. It was God who justified him, through the death of His Son in Abraham’s place, a death which brought in that righteousness which God freely imputed to Abraham and to all his seed, who believe in the promise, and who are brought, like David, to know the blessedness of iniquities forgiven, or righteousness imputed.

This seed, this people, are those of the faith of Abraham, both of Jews and Gentiles, he being the “father of many nations”, a countless multitude. A people with this in common: they are all found in Christ, that One true Seed of Abraham, the firstborn of many sons, the One who through His death brought in the inheritance of promise, the blessing of Abraham, to all those who believe, of both Jews and Gentiles. As we read in Galatians 3:11-18.

“But that no man is justified by the law in the sight of God, it is evident: for, The just shall live by faith. And the law is not of faith: but,

The man that doeth them shall live in them. Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us: for it is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree: That the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ; that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.

Brethren, I speak after the manner of men; Though it be but a man’s covenant, yet if it be confirmed, no man disannulleth, or addeth thereto. Now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made. He saith not, And to seeds, as of many; but as of one, And to thy seed, which is Christ.

And this I say, that the covenant, that was confirmed before of God in Christ, the law, which was four hundred and thirty years after, cannot disannul, that it should make the promise of none effect. For if the inheritance be of the law, it is no more of promise: but God gave it to Abraham by promise.”

What marks out such a people? They “walk in the steps of that faith of our father Abraham, which he had yet being uncircumcised” Romans 4:12. They believeGod, and it is counted unto them for righteousness (4:3).

Who establish the law by faith (4:13-25)

From verse 13 of chapter 4 Paul turns his attention to the third and final question raised at the end of chapter 3, “Do we then make void the law through faith?”

Oh, how important this is to answer! Having already dealt with such a disbelieving question in the firmest manner with the reply “God forbid: yea, we establish the law” Paul now seeks to demonstrate from the example of the promise made to Abraham, and the faith of Abraham, that faith does indeed establish the law.

In verse 13 Paul affirms the truth of the Gospel by taking us right back to the first book of the Bible and reminds us of the promise God made to Abraham in Genesis 17, and that everlasting covenant of grace. There God promised to make Abraham a father of many nations, to establish a covenant with him and his seed, to be his God, and to give him the land wherein he was a stranger as an everlasting possession. It is this promise and its precursor in Genesis 15 which Abraham was given faith to believe in, faith which God counted unto “him for righteousness” (Genesis 15:6). Was this in circumcision? No, in uncircumcision, for it wasn’t until after these promises were made that circumcision was instituted as a “seal of the righteousness of faith which he had yet being uncircumcised” Romans 4:11.

Hence the promise was not “through the law”, circumcision, figurative of the law, yet having been instituted, “but through the righteousness of faith” (4:13). The promise, and the blessings of that promise, as fulfilled by Christ in the Gospel, as the Seed of Abraham, came not by works, but by faith, not by law but by grace. But what was that promise? On the face of things it would seem to refer to the inheritance of the land of Canaan in which Abraham was a stranger, and to that physical nation of Israel which sprang from Abraham’s loins. Yet all that was merely a figure, a shadow, of what the promise truly referred to. Physical Canaan never was, and never will be, the everlasting possession of Abraham or the Jews. But what it pictures, what it represents, will forever be the eternal inheritance of all those who are the true children of Abraham, the heirs of the promise. For what it represents is that eternal inheritance of the world to come of which Abraham and his seed would be heirs, not “through the law, but through the righteousness of faith” (14:13), andnot in time, but in eternity, in resurrection glory! A world in which all God’s people, purchased by the blood of His Son, risen again in newness of life in Him, raised incorruptible having put on incorruption in the resurrection to come, with glorious spiritual bodies, will ever live in righteousness in the new heavens and the new earth! (See 1 Corinthians 15, 2 Peter 3:13, Revelation 21:1). This is the inheritance spoken of here, this is what will be brought in when Christ returns for His people, and this is the promise made to Abraham of which he was heir. By works? No, by faith!

For Abraham believed God, knowing that God would bring in this inheritance through death. In this Abraham was taught in the trial of being asked to offer up Isaac, the son whom God promised him. Abraham obeyed his Lord, believing not only that God was able to rise up Isaac from the dead, but knowing that this figure pointed to One who was to come, far down through the ages, who would be raised again from the dead in order to bring in the inheritance promised to His people. For an inheritance is always brought in by death, and it is by the death of the promised Seed that the promise of the world to come is brought in to all found in Him. This was what Abraham’s faith believed, and this faith is what God counted for righteousness. (See Hebrews 11:8-19)

This is the promise made to Abraham, and if by faith, then not by law. But does that make the law void? God forbid – it establishes the law. Yea, it establishes the law by the death of Christ, who took upon Himself the full penalty and demands of the law against His people, suffering the wrath which they deserved, dying the death which they should die, being made a curse for them, to deliver them from the curse, from judgment, from captivity, from sin. By such a death Christ brought His people through the rivers of death into everlasting life the other side of death, from this side of Jordan into the promised land, from time into eternity, and from the bondage and rule of the law (as being the other side of death and out of its reach) into the life and liberty of the Gospel – from the reign of death into the reign of grace. This established the law, satisfying its every demand, fulfilling its every penalty, and bringing in everlasting righteousness for all the seed of promise – and nothing else does. And this is what faith lays hold upon – justification by the blood of Christ.

Does faith make void the law? In verse 14 Paul turns the tables on his hypothetical questioner of chapter 3:31. Far from faith making the law void the very opposite is true. Whereas faith, and the righteousness brought in by faith, both fulfils and establishes the law (fulfilling every promise of which it pointed in type and figure, and establishing that righteousness which it demanded, to be imputed to all those who believe) those who would turn to the works of the law to establish their own righteousness do in fact make faith void and the promise of none effect! Far from bringing forth righteousness from those found under its rule the “law worketh wrath”, it condemns the sins of those under its rule and places them under a sentence of death. Far from being a ‘rule of life’ the law shows itself to be a “ministration of death”, and a “killing letter”. The law owes nothing to faith, it doesn’t demand it, nor depend upon it (Galatians 3:12). The law demands works from all those found under its rule, works which they have neither the means, nor the ability to render. Far from bringing in the promise, the truth is, as Galatians 2:21 tells us, that “if righteousness come by the law, then Christ is dead in vain” – Indeed, “faith is made void, and the promise made of none effect.”

But Abraham was taught otherwise. He knew that the promise could only come by faith, only by the work of God on his behalf, only by grace. He knew that righteousness could not be attained to by his own strength, for he lacked any strength by nature, being dead in trespasses and sins. He knew that righteousness must be brought in by God, must be put to his account – imputed to him – while yet in his sins and that the inheritance could only come through the death of another. Twice over God taught Abraham the need for resurrection. Having promised Abraham and Sarah a child that child was only brought forth, at the command of God, when both Abraham and Sarah were both ‘dead’ naturally speaking, when Sarah was way past the age of child bearing (Romans 4:19). Yet, when at such an age, past all natural hope, when faith was tested to the limit, then, and only then, God rewarded the faith of Abraham, “who against hope believed in hope, that he might become the father of many nations” (Romans 4:18) and God gave him the child He had promised. Yet again, God taught Abraham about the inheritance to come in the resurrection, when he commanded him to offer up Isaac. And as we have seen Abraham believed God, being “fully persuaded that, what he had promised, he was also able to perform” (4:21), counting him “able to raise [Isaac] up, even from the dead; from whence also he received him in a figure.” Hebrews 11:19 A figure of what? Of the raising up from the dead of Jesus our Lord …

“Who was delivered for our offences, and was raised again for our justification” Romans 4:25.

This is what Abraham believed, which God counted unto him for righteousness, having brought in righteousness by the faith of Jesus Christ to be imputed to all who believe, that righteousness of faith which both established and fulfilled the law.

And this is what every child of God, every child of Abraham rests in by faith: “For we do not make void the law through faith. God forbid: yea, we establish the law.”